WWE Royal Rumble 2017: 10 Big Mistakes They Can't Afford To Make
8. Not Debuting Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe hasn’t been seen or heard from since failing to regain his NXT Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura in Australia last month. The two-time champion wasn’t part of this month’s television tapings, and Bobby Roode has taken his position as Nakamura’s chief antagonist. All signs point towards an imminent main roster debut, and the 2017 Royal Rumble feels like the perfect place to pull it off.
There are few better ways to debut a new superstar than by giving them an impressive Rumble showing, and Joe can be this year’s AJ Styles. That’s not to say he’ll be as successful as the current WWE Champion, but AJ immediately felt like a big deal when he strode into last year’s Rumble. Joe can replicate that success by going toe-to-toe with some of WWE’s biggest names and notching a few eliminations on his first night on the main roster, cementing his status as a dominant brute.
Joe’s call-up feels inevitable at this point, and it’d be a bigger shock if he didn’t show up in the Rumble match. As a heel, few WWE superstars are more effective than Joe, and with Raw’s “bad guys” typically drawing bigger cheers than most of the show’s faces, he could be exactly what the red brand needs. Wherever he ends up, Joe will be positioned as an immediate threat, and the Royal Rumble could be an ideal start.