5 Botches, slip ups, and outrageous moments from WWE Raw February 6th, 2017

Monday Night Raw was a much heralded night thanks to the debut of the Samoan Submission Machine, Samoa Joe. He held his own in the opening promo and was given quite the showcase to shine in the main event of the night. WWE handled this night very well for Joe.

Along with Samoa Joe, there were plenty of events to come out of the night to talk about and many of them were a little more strange than anything. Akira Tozawa was repeatedly praised as having impressive stamina in the second shortest match of the night, Roman Reigns briefly remembered that he wore a chest protector, and Austin Aries demonstrated what real fashion is.

There were plenty of outrageous and botchy moments from this Monday night, so let’s get to them...

---

5. A stamina monster

There’s no real botch here on the part of Akira Tozawa or Drew Gulak, so they’re safe from criticism. For Tozawa’s debut to the current Cruiserweight Division, this match was everything it needed to be. It didn’t drag out, he got a fair amount of crowd support with his screaming, and he showcased his impressive arsenal. The problem here lies with the commentary team, who repeatedly referred to him as a “Stamina Monster.”

The total match time was 3:40.

It’s a little baffling why they chose to accent his stamina in a contest that was so short, but we did hear about it several times. Once again, Tozawa looked great here, but a showcase of stamina was most definitely not seen.

4. A man of fashion

Austin Aries had a banana in his front pocket.

The yellow fruit was seen accessorising his dapper attire both while he was sitting in commentary and also while he was conducting his exclusive in ring interview. I don’t recall Aries ever addressing the odd pocket decor, but perhaps he truly enjoys the way it complements the rest of his outfit. Or maybe he knew he’d get hungry during the course of Raw. It is a long three hours.

3. Over the top miss

In what should have been a one on one interview by Austin Aries with the Cruiserweight Champion, Neville, all of his challengers that will be vying for a title shot on the next night’s 205 Live interrupted. Naturally, these interruption leads to a wild brawl that saw everyone battling it out.

Being Cruiserweights, a sequence of over the top rope dives to the outside was a fitting climax. However, there was one head scratching moment when the man with the fantastic physique, Tony Nese, seemingly went for a high-risk attack that connected with nobody. He sort of grazed T.J. Perkins, but that’s being generous.

2. No selling torso strikes

For the most part, Samoa Joe looked incredibly strong in his match against Roman Reigns. The two seem to have chemistry so hopefully, they get more chances to wrestle each other in the future. Joe fits into the dominant role that makes Roman more sympathetic, offering extended beatdowns to the man with very mixed crowd reactions.

There was a brief moment of no-selling by Roman as he tried to rally in the face of his aggressor, but instead of getting excited about Reigns possibly mounting a comeback I began wondering why this wasn’t the norm for all of those Joe strikes. Roman Reigns wears a chest protector, shouldn’t all strikes to his torso get a similar reaction?

1. Joe pins Roman

Even with a resume like Samoa Joe’s, this is still impressive. This was his first official night on Raw and he was treated like a huge deal when booked in the main event opposite WWE’s chosen son, Roman Reigns. If that wasn’t enough, he won the match by pinning The Big Dog in the middle of the ring.

Sure, Roman was distracted by Braun Strowman and that was a huge factor in the loss, but this was still a monumental first match on the main roster. Seeing how WWE has handled A.J. Styles over the past year, it might be safe to be optimistic about Joe’s career in Vince McMahon’s promotion. It’s outrageous to think Samoa Joe would ever be treated so well.