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Samoa Joe: How Long Should His NXT Title Run Be?

By Aric Mitchell
Published on: 12:32 PST, Apr 24, 2016

Samoa Joe finally conquered the Demon, Finn Balor, at a NXT show last week, and now the speculation is already kicking in as to the possibility of a Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match at WrestleMania 33.

While that could be a good direction for the WWE to take and would no doubt boost WWE Network subscriptions, it may not be the best idea long term. Here’s why.

1. NXT needs Samoa Joe more than WWE.

WWE is currently in the process of trying to build new stars. With Joe’s legacy already established from a debut that took place in 1999 to his extensive run with TNA and Ring of Honor, he has more years behind him in the wrestling business than he has ahead.

NXT has purged a lot of its WWE-ready talent. While it is still loaded with guys who are great in the ring, not all of the personalities have had time to develop.

Samoa Joe working heel as guardian of the belt is something that WWE could easily milk for a year or more.

Such a lengthy title run would pay Joe the proper respect he deserves from his history while giving the younger guys an effective villain to help build out their talents and become WWE Superstars.

2. Brock-Joe would need more time to develop as well.

The best time to have Samoa Joe drop the title would be at a NXT TakeOver event WrestleMania 33 weekend, and that would not give his and Brock Lesnar’s program the time it deserves to adequately develop.

A better course of action: after Joe leaves the belt in the hands of a new NXT Champion at said-TakeOver, he shows up to confront Brock Lesnar during the post-WM33 Raw.

The program would need several redirects, with other people challenging Brock and Joe — maybe even turning them into grudging tag partners at a certain point — before finally gearing them up for a head-to-head at WrestleMania 34.

The only two potential problems here are that the WWE has become quite injury-prone, and either of these two guys may be needed in another role by that time. Plus, the organization is now such that it makes it difficult to plan two years ahead with so many uncertainties.

Still, it seems like Samoa Joe being the current NXT Champion deserves more time-focus than a program next year with Brock Lesnar would allow.

3. Samoa Joe will probably give the WWE more years as a monster than Brock Lesnar, if they use him right.

Setting up a program with Brock one year from now would increase the odds that Lesnar walks away with yet another victory. That said, Brock doesn’t have much time left in the WWE, and it would be better if he helped put over Samoa Joe a couple of years from now because Joe likely has more time remaining in the company.

Giving Joe the victory in a matchup with Brock isn’t as farfetched as it might seem. While Lesnar has a more monstrous bodybuilder look and is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Samoa Joe is skilled in MMA as well and is a fierce student of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, and Muay Thai.

He has never won the title that Brock won, but many MMA fans will point out that Lesnar wasn’t the most dominant champion.

In fact, he lost his second professional fight via first-round submission to Frank Mir and was pretty much gifted a title shot against an over-the-hill (and much smaller) Randy Couture.

His entire professional career was just eight fights long, and he only won five of them with the last two being knockout defeats to the since-vanquished Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem, a guy who has lost 14 professional fights.

Samoa Joe getting a W against Brock is more believable than any other opponent in the WWE/NXT locker room.

But what do you think, readers?

Should Samoa Joe be given a lengthier NXT title run, and if so, do you think that would complicate a Brock Lesnar face-off at WrestleMania 33? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via WWE]

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