WWE Rumors: ‘Monday Night Raw’ Superstar Might Have Teased First-Ever Face Turn On Main Roster
After more than two-and-a-half years of cutting vicious promos against WWE’s babyfaces and delivering merciless beatdowns to them during and outside of matches, it looks like Samoa Joe might be on his way to making his first babyface turn since joining the main roster early in 2017.
As recapped by WrestlingNews.co, Joe took part in an angle on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, where he tried calling out erstwhile rival Roman Reigns and denied being involved in the backstage incident where Reigns was nearly hit by a falling set of steel scaffolding on last week’s SmackDown Live. After calling out the audience for accusing him of masterminding the incident, he headed to the parking lot to confront Reigns, who initially got out of the car he was driving.
Soon after, Reigns re-entered his car as another vehicle crashed into it, leading to a segment where Joe and Triple H attended to the former Universal Champion and seemed to show concern. WrestlingNews.co speculated that this could be WWE’s way of teasing a face turn for Joe, who has played a villainous role for most of his time with the company, including his entire two-and-a-half-year stint on the main roster.
Although there’s a chance that Roman Reigns’ attacker will finally be revealed on tomorrow’s SmackDown Live – the last episode of the show ahead of Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view – WrestlingNews.co noted that previous reports may have already revealed the attacker’s identity. Citing a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the New York Post wrote last week that Daniel Bryan is likely the mystery man behind last week’s attack on Reigns and that his involvement could tie in with his refusal to confirm his long-awaited “career-altering announcement.”
.@SamoaJoe has been fined an undisclosed amount by #WWE due to his behavior earlier today at Pittsburgh International Airport. https://t.co/1EbXZgpVv5
— WWE (@WWE) August 5, 2019
Despite WWE’s attempts to tease something big through the aforementioned storyline with Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and possibly Daniel Bryan, the New York Post criticized last week’s segment as one where the “execution was lacking,” mainly due to the lack of buildup and the fact that Reigns was able to emerge unscathed, without any clear signs of injury. Furthermore, Comic Book wrote last week that several WWE fans were likewise unimpressed, with multiple Twitter users expressing their confusion or amusement at what was supposed to be a serious and tense angle.
Should Joe indeed be switching to a heroic role, it’s not clear how WWE will write his face turn now that it’s essentially been proven that he wasn’t behind the attack on Reigns. However, the New York Post predicted that Reigns could be in for an entertaining feud against Bryan – assuming he turns out to be the mystery attacker – even if their rivalry could have used a few extra weeks of buildup beforehand.
