On Christmas, Roman Reigns successfully defended his Intercontinental title and got a measure of revenge for his fallen Shield brother Dean Ambrose when he was disqualfied during a championship match with Samoa Joe.
General Manager Kurt Angle revealed on Twitter a short time ago that The Big Dog and The Destroyer will continue their rivalry on the next episode of Raw - New Year’s Day in Miami. And this time, The Hound of Justice will need to make sure he keeps his thirst for vengeance in check...
On the first #Raw of 2018 @WWERomanReigns will defend his #ICTitle against @SamoaJoe; if Roman is DQ’ed, he’ll lose the match AND his title
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) December 29, 2017
Interesting. This could just be a way to add some drama to a feud Roman was always going to win. Or it could be a way to get the IC belt off him en route to a long-reported WrestleMania Universal title match.
One thing that popped into my noodle was that this stipulation means that Reigns could lose here if someone else attacks Joe. Especially with the edict coming from his kayfabe father, it would be an interesting way to keep heat between the new tag champs (and tease out his eventual heel turn) to have Jason Jordan jump in the match, possibly inadvertantly(?) costing Roman his title in attempt to help one of Seth Rollins’ faction-mates.
That’s just me fantasy booking out loud, though. We’ll see what WWE does Monday. In the meantime, feel free to give us your take on the announcement below.