As big a moment as Samoa Joe's victory in the Fatal 5-Way match at Extreme Rules was, like many such moments in the giant perpetual motion machine that is the WWE, if it wasn't immediately capitalized upon it would be destined to quickly fade into the collective memories of the WWE Universe.
But in his brightest moment to date in the WWE, the new No. 1 contender to the Universal championship proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he deserves the opportunity to step into the ring with Brock Lesnar. In what became a theme for the evening on Monday night, Samoa Joe lit the end of a long fuse and started the slow burn toward July's "Great Balls of Fire" pay-per-view.
Raw has had its troubles during the past few months, as stories dragged on and matches that should have felt special were played and replayed over and over again, and there was more of it on this edition with Raw as Joe and Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns, and Kalisto, Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil did another rotation around the merry-go-round, to name a few. But, as we saw with Braun Strowman, when the Raw team puts its mind toward building a believable bad guy around a good idea, they have the ability to pull off something big.
Joe going on just an hour into the show was initially a bit of a head-scratcher, but he immediately rolled into a strong promo in which he strongly denied any kind of fear of Lesnar. Rather than fear, Joe insisted that his mortal sin in this scenario was his envy of everything Lesnar had -- the ability to do whatever the heck he wanted.
"I want Brock Lesnar's gilded schedule, where he's not forced to come out here week after week in front of you ungrateful masses," Joe said. "No, he can come in, he can beat people down, and he can leave as he pleases."
Samoa Joe continued to rattle off everything else that Lesnar had that he wanted, not the least of which were Paul Heyman and, above all else, the Universal championship, and then relished in the fact that he would get to have most of it by taking it directly from Lesnar. While the promo could have easily ended there, with Joe slapping a smug smile on his face and walking out, Heyman then entered the fray and did what he does best when presented even a half-cooked idea -- he sold the hell out of it.
Heyman compared Joe to John Cena, Goldberg and The Undertaker, further elevating the new No. 1 contender, and insisted that despite Joe's lack of fear, and what he might dole out upon the champion, Lesnar would not be stopped. But even in the relative calm that fell over the ring as Heyman entered, Samoa Joe's unpredictable nature hung in the air. His retort came in hushed tones, as he asked Heyman to deliver a message to Lesnar.
As the microphone subtly dropped to the ground, Joe slowly crowded Heyman into the corner and started to apologize. What was about to happen was meant for Lesnar, only he sent out his advocate unprotected; Joe described in detail, softly, with the camera's microphones just barely picking it up, how he was going to choke Heyman out in the middle of the ring.
And then he did it. It was the perfect moment to show just how ruthless and uncaring Joe is meant to be. It's a return to the roots of the kind of character he developed before joining NXT and WWE. All of those "X is going to kill you" chants? They started with Samoa Joe during his time in Ring of Honor and TNA, as his unbridled violence was what gave him his mass appeal. He was always effective on the microphone, but Joe has reached another level of late. That evolution and multi-dimensional attack is going to be a major asset going forward.
After Rollins confronted him backstage and set up the night's main event (with an incredible moment in which Joe and Kurt Angle went nose-to-nose), any lingering doubts of Joe's "top guy" status faded away. He dominated the bulk of his match with Rollins by any means necessary, and with the help of a Wyatt blackout tease, earned his second decisive submission victory over a former world champion in as many nights.
Next week, after more than two months off of TV, Lesnar returns. It will be another test for Samoa Joe, but after facing down any doubt and passing his first big test with flying colors, the anticipation for their first face-to-face showdown could not be much higher.
Hits and misses
The first 30-plus minutes were dedicated to our now-weekly nonsensical Wyatt promo and then a very solid match between Wyatt and Reigns. From the get-go, it screamed of the desire to immediately get Reigns back on the winning path, and the outcome was never in doubt. All that (and Wyatt's return to perpetual also-ran) aside, they accomplished a great deal by doing something quite unusual for the times -- opening up Raw with an actual match.
Dean Ambrose resided deeply in The Miz's head Monday night, raising his paranoia levels so sharply that The Miz tried to short-circuit all of the ways he thought Ambrose would try to invade his championship celebration. What we got, then, was a skull-crushing finale on a costumed bear that was definitely not Ambrose, and The Miz destroying a grandfather clock (which sent Maryse rushing backstage on the verge of tears). After all of that, Ambrose instead revealed himself to be one of the camera guys, and still got his licks in after Miz made a fool of himself. Point, Ambrose.
It was hard to believe that Alexa Bliss was going to get so far as to embarrass Bayley only to lose her Raw women's title on a whim to Nia Jax, and the impromptu title match falling apart in a hurry with a DQ serves well to fan the flames towards whatever will be between Bliss and Jax.
No Bayley and no Hardy Boyz on Monday night, as each sat home nursing their wounds from Sunday at Extreme Rules.
Speaking of evil partnerships falling apart, TJP got a bad news delivery in the form of a blindside attack from long-time buddy (and cruiserweight champion) Neville. But it also came with a title shot Tuesday night on 205 Live, so it wasn't all bad.
After two weeks of Enzo Amore getting blindsided, it was, apparently, Big Cass' turn to get attacked this week. Amore got Big Show to fill in on short notice (both in the ring and on the microphone, to great comedic effect) in a brief match against Gallows & Anderson, but Cass took exception to their postmatch celebrations. So what will it be -- are The Revival's appearances of late just a red herring, with Cass trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes? Or is it something else entirely?
The Titus Brand somehow gets better by the week. Who would have thought?
Quote of the week
"We want Brock," chanted the crowd. "So do I," Samoa Joe replied, dropping the mic like he had just dropped Paul Heyman.