9 Best WWE Moments From Superstars Released On Black Thursday 2021

1. Samoa Joe Humbles Brock Lesnar

Over the course of his all-too-brief WWE career, Samoa Joe accomplished plenty. The Samoan Submission Machine was the first two-time NXT Champion. He went on to win two United States Championships on the main roster, famously beating Rey Mysterio in just 60 seconds at WrestleMania. Joe had excellent matches with Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Roman Reigns and more.

All well and good, but nothing came close to his, again, all-too-brief feud with Brock Lesnar over the WWE Universal Championship in the summer of 2017. Many were surprised that Joe even made it to that point but the big man knocked it out the park, creating a vulnerability around Brock that hadn't been there in years. At a time when Brock Lesnar was untouchable, Samoa Joe convinced the world that he could slay the beast. Joe's promos were the best in the company by light-years at this point, none better than the famous humbling he gave Brock on the July 10 episode of RAW. This was as close as WWE fans got to the famous Samoan Submission Machine.

Of all the names released, Joe's is the most surprising. He seemed to have made a steady transition into commentary where, shock of shocks, he had fast become the best commentator in the company. Even if he wasn't to return to the ring, Samoa Joe's value to WWE should have made him untouchable. Their idiocy will be the wider wrestling world's gain.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.