Samoa Joe Could Have Left SummerSlam As WWE Champion Before Plans Changed

During a recent PWInsider Elite radio show, Mike Johnson reported that the original plans for WWE SummerSlam 2018 called for Samoa Joe to defeat AJ Styles and become the new WWE Champion. 

Johnson said: “

There was a consideration to Joe winning the belt but that is not the final finish that they went with."

As we saw on Sunday night, The Phenomenal One hung on to his title after getting himself disqualified. In a rather shocking turn of events, despite winning a world title match at SummerSlam via DQ, meaning he didn't take the title home, there were no balloons nor streamers raining down from the rafters for Samoa Joe. Everyone who saw SummerSlam '93 knows what I'm talking about. 

This alleged first draft of the WWE title match solidifies the idea that WWE considers Joe as one of the top talent on the SmackDown brand today. And with this deeply personal feud with Styles being continued this past Tuesday night, it doesn't look like The Samoan Submission Machine's time at the top will be ending any time soon.

Logic would dictate the pair are set to go head-to-head inside Hell in a Cell at the caged-based PPV on September 16, and with this news in mind, it's going to be mighty interesting to see if WWE finally decide to strap the rockets to Joe, brother brother. Were Joe to win the WWE Championship, it would be his first title since debuting on the main roster back in March of last year.

Having won the championship back in November from Jinder Mahal over in the UK, AJ Styles has gone on to become the longest reigning WWE Champions in SmackDown history, having held the title (at the time of writing) for 289 days - surpassing JBL's 280-day record in the process.