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What's the story?
Samoa Joe's latest rivalry with Kofi Kingston has, to no surprise, gotten personal. The Samoan Submission Machine has always done what he could to cross the line with his opponents, and the WWE Champion is no different.
However, it looks like his mind games aren't having the desired effect, leading to a surprising gesture from Kingston tonight.
In case you didn't know...
Samoa Joe believes that Kofi Kingston is, at his core, lying to the WWE Universe. He feels that the veteran is just using the fans, along with the New Day, to better his own career.
On SmackDown Live tonight, he even claimed that in a few years time, Xavier Woods would only be Kingston's hype man, with Big E as a personal butler.
Kingston didn't let this phase him, however. The champion claimed that he was just following the same old routine that he always does. From AJ Styles to Roman Reigns to Rey Mysterio, the Samoan Submission Machine attempts to assassinate the character of his opponent before going for the kill in the ring.
Tonight, though, that wasn't going to work.
The heart of the matter
Kingston and Joe were caught up in a war of words tonight, leading to the former US Champion trying to force his Extreme Rules opponent to shake his hand. Wary of his challenger, Kingston opted to give him something completely unexpected.
Kofi Kingston avoided Joe's hand, and instead flipped him the bird, leading to the former United States Champion trying to rush him. This allowed the Dreadlocked Dynamo to lay him out with a Trouble in Paradise. For many, though, the moment was missed as their TV screens went black. Even on their Twitter page, the moment was cut.
What's next?
In a surprising turn of events, Kofi Kingston stood atop Samoa Joe, proving that he'll need more than the mental game to take away the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules.
Joe only has a few more chances to get into his opponent's head before next Sunday, and it looks like it won't be so easy this time around.
See WWE Smackdown Live Updates, Highlights of event, & more on WWE Smackdown Latest updates page
