Have you secretly been harboring a desire to see former two-time NXT Champion Samoa Joe debut at this month’s Royal Rumble? Well, buckle up, because a new report indicates that might not be as far-fetched an idea as you’ve been led to believe. (Led to believe by your own pessimistic thoughts, that is. You pessimist.)
The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter is here to get your hopes up, perhaps unnecessarily and unrealistically. Samoa Joe’s title-exchanging feud with Shinsuke Nakamura now appears to be definitively at an end, and unlike Nakamura, he hasn’t been given a direction in NXT after being in the main event picture for nearly the entire year. With the WrestleMania card not yet finalized (far from it, in fact), Dave Meltzer reports that there is “an idea on the table” for Joe to make his main roster debut “with a major push,” and to be put in one of the “top few matches” at WrestleMania. Now there’s a rumor, boys and girls.
Meltzer rightfully extrapolates (without having heard anything to this effect, mind you) that if this were to go down, Joe would likely have to have a Royal Rumble debut, and a pretty impressive showing in that match. I concur with that assessment, but that’s in part because I’m a die-hard Samoa Joe fanboy who wants him to absolutely wreck shop on the main roster as soon as humanly possible.
Will Joe show up at the Rumble in a few weeks to single-handedly eliminate both Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar? A quick survey of my heart’s deepest hopes and dreams reveals conclusively: yes, absolutely.
