Samoa Joe believes he can beat Brock Lesnar, and so should you

We publish a whole lot of content here at Cageside Seats. We’re also [looks around and whispers so the bosses can’t hear] not the only place producing wrestling content on the internet. So, as a service to you on the weekdays, we’ll be producing a wrestling newsletter, "Rude Awakening." Well, it will be a newsletter eventually: for now, it’ll just be part of your experience here at Cageside, collecting the news, recaps, and social moments from the greater wrestling universe daily so you won’t fall behind, with a newsletter format to come.

Half the battle for any Brock Lesnar opponent is convincing the world that they stand a chance against the Beast. It only took one episode of RAW for Samoa Joe to succeed in this endeavor. Between whispering threats to Paul Heyman, the confident demeanor that no one does like Joe, and just how straight-up engaged he was with killer responses to other wrestlers, the crowd, and the looming specter of Brock himself, Joe made it clear that he truly believes he can take down Lesnar. And there’s not one good reason why we shouldn’t believe that, too.

Okay, well, maybe one good reason: WWE did book Joe to win via distraction over Seth Rollins instead of just crushing him, but at least Rollins is a former WWE World Champion who is back to his high-flying/power combo ways.

Still, Joe’s words and attitude make it easy to believe he has a real chance against Brock, whose last two feuds saw him get wrecked by Goldberg in short order to kick things off and also resort to drilling through Randy Orton’s skull with his fists in order to avoid another RKO. Brock is Brock, and there isn’t anyone like him, but you could say the same about Samoa Joe. If anyone is going to rise up against Brock’s tyranny of suplexes and get the Beast to submit, it’s Joe. And he’ll be able to do it without dick punching or incompetent refereeing, unlike a certain recently retired former biker.

Of course, believing in Joe’s belief and Joe actually winning are two different things. It feels more like, at best, we can expect Joe to survive Brock until Braun Strowman makes his presence felt and sets up SummerSlam’s main event, leaving the question of Destroyer vs. Beast unanswered. That’s not a bad thing, though: I’d happily give up a conclusion to Joe/Brock today if it meant they got an even bigger spotlight down the road, and WWE could very well feel the same way given how they’re building Joe up right now.

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