SK's take on who Samoa Joe will go up against at WrestleMania 34 and how he will get there
Samoa Joe has had a weird, but relatively good, WWE main roster run since debuting on RAW back in January when he attacked Seth Rollins on the orders of Triple H.
For example, it was disappointing that the two-time NXT Champion did not feature at all on the WrestleMania 33 card in April.
However. it feels like Joe has been on a wave of momentum since his feud with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, which transpired in a match at the Great Balls Of Fire PPV back in July. which saw him get over with fans as a top heel within WWE, despite losing.
Apparently, the rivalry with Lesnar saw Joe's stock rise with higher-up WWE officials, something which many saw as unlikely with The Samoan BullDozer still seen as a TNA and ROH Alumni.
This new-found confidence WWE had in Joe became evident because even though he was supposed to only have one PPV bout with Lesnar, the company ended up placing Joe in another Universal Title contest at August's SummerSlam.
The classic Fatal 4-Way main event which also involved Braun Strowman and Reigns (Lesnar ended up retaining his Championship after pinning Reigns).
Shortly after this PPV, Joe injured his knee and required surgery.
This was unfortunate, as rumour had it that Joe was going to face off against The Miz for the Intercontinental Title at the No Mercy show in September (originally WWE planned to do Joe vs. Cena, but switched to Cena vs. Reigns).
None of us know if Joe was scheduled to win the IC Championship at the event. But, I believe this was an omen as to what is going to come.
The Samoan Submission Machine would eventually return to RAW on the October 30th edition of Monday Night RAW, easily beating Apollo Crews.
Over the following few weeks, during the build-up to the Survivor Series PPV, WWE then teased what we had all been waiting for from their NXT days.
A Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor feud.
However, despite coming to blows on the November 6th RAW in a bout which finished in a double count-out, they put their differences aside to join Team RAW for the traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 Elimination match against Team SmackDown on the 19th of the same month.
The two were both eliminated during the match, but their team won.
Next, Joe beat Balor the next night on RAW.
This seemed to be WWE putting a halt to them going at it a meaningful rivalry for the time being, although they are wrestling against each other on live events at the moment.
But yet again, I believe this was another omen of what is to pan out.
In December, Samoa Joe started to get involved with The Shield, aligning with Sheamus and Cesaro against the faction.
This saw the reinvigoration of a Joe and Reigns (who is the Intercontinental Champion) conflict, especially when two weeks ago, Joe (kayfabe) attacked Dean Ambrose and put him out of action for nine months, much to the anger of The Big Dog, who unleashed an attack on Joe on Christmas Day RAW, resulting in Joe winning their IC TItle bout by DQ (BUT Reigns retained).
Yesterday, I wrote an opinion feature here at SportsKeeda dealing with how WWE will likely set up the supposed WrestleMania 34 main event between Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar (c) for the Universal Title, and how the company would have The Big Dog lose the IC Title before then.
I bring this up because I predicted how Reigns dropping his IC Title involved the one and only Samoa Joe.
I thought that Reigns was going to defend his belt against Joe and a third man at the Royal Rumble on January 28th.
This third man being The Miz, and Joe would win the Championship by beating The Miz.
And next week was ideal to set it up.
The A-Lister is due to return to WWE RAW on next week's New Year's Day, according to rumours.
This after being away from WWE, filming the Marine 6: Close Quarters since the RAW following Survivor Series, when he lost the IC Title to Roman Reigns, and was subsequently put through the announcers' desk by Roman and rest of The Shield.
Hence, The Miz will want a rematch for the Title, as well as retribution upon coming back.
Sadly, there is a dent in my predictions, as a few hours ago, RAW GM Kurt Angle announced via Twitter that Reigns will put his IC Championship on the line against Samoa Joe, and Joe will become Champ if Reigns gets disqualified.
So..... what if The Miz made his rearrival by attacking Samoa Joe, causing the match to end by Reigns being disqualified, and JOE BECOMING THE NEW IC CHAMPION.
WWE can have Reigns drop the title in a respectable manner, i.e. he won't look poorly ahead of his bout with Lesnar.
At the Rumble, WWE can have Joe defend against Reigns and Miz in a triple threat match (as both will have a stake to a title rematch), pinning or submitting The Miz to retain.
The next question is what they would do with Joe leading into WrestleMania 34?
Well, at the Elimination Chamber PPV, my bet would be that Joe will go up against The Miz, who wouldn't have gotten his one-on-one rematch for the IC Title yet he was due from November. I think we'd see Joe defeat The Miz.
Also, both of them will likely participate in a men's Elimination Chamber main event that night with 4 other Superstars, which would be for the No.1 contendership to the Universal Title at WrestleMania 34, with Reigns being the victor in order for him to face Lesnar.
I think that WWE will attempt to set Joe up for his WrestleMania 34 match in the same bout, which I think will be Finn Balor, who we talked about earlier on, likely to be apart of the Chamber main event too.
Balor could be the one who eliminates Joe, and this would mean he could now say that he has beaten the IC Champion, and he has a legit claim to a title bout.......at WrestleMania.
If booked correctly, a Joe vs. Balor rivalry could steal the show heading into WM 34, and it would definitely add a great prestige to the Intercontinental Championship, whilst we know their match would be awesome.
Balor would win the Title at the event, in his Demon King alter ego, as November proved he can't beat Joe one-on-one as just the plain Finn Balor.
Demon King vs a Samoan Bulldozer at WrestleMania 34
Now, who doesn't want to see that? Let me know if you agree with my thoughts in the comment section.