WILL 2018 RAW BE MORE CHALLENGING

On a night that felt in many ways like a holding pattern show, WWE certainly squeezed in enough to keep the Miami crowd and everyone watching at home engaged until the very end.
Any week that Universal champion Brock Lesnar shows up with Paul Heyman in tow and gets physical is an occasion, Roman Reigns versus Samoa Joe continues to be the fiery rivalry driving the Raw steam engine and, in what was the most surprising moment of the night, WWE officials finally yielded and gave a vocal subset of fans the reunion they've been craving for well over a year.
There are only three Monday Night Raws left until the Royal Rumble and plenty of ways the first major show of the year can go along the way.
The Fight Between Roman Reign and Samoa Joe is Far from Over
It's been a very slow coming out party for Samoa Joe on Raw over the last year, with numerous close calls, great matches and detours along the way. But over the last few weeks in particular, as his focus drifted back towards Roman Reigns and the Intercontinental championship, Samoa Joe seems to have found his groove in almost every way.
Like it did last week, an intense backstage promo with Renee Young lit the fuse for what would be a banner night. "Roman Reigns has run out of options. He's run out of friends and he's run out of time. Because when I put him to sleep and become the new Intercontinental champion, he will understand that it may be his yard, but he lives in my world," Joe bragged, as he carried on and gloated about all he had done to destroy The Shield and push Reigns over the edge.
Joe could cut a good promo in his sleep, but it was his nuance and energy that brought everything to life. He got another dig in at Renee Young as well, boasting, "Because of me, Dean Ambrose is now a stay-at-home husband living off of his wife's paycheck," the key of that sentence being the fact that Young is Ambrose's wife.
Reigns deserves a lot of credit for the success and believability of this rivalry, which dates all the way back to February 2017 and Joe's Raw debut match. Though Reigns found some success in tag team and multi-way matches, in the three one-on-one clashes between Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns, Joe had walked away with wins all three times. Reigns has done a magnificent job of exuding hatred and frustration for what Joe's been able to do to him along the way, and the added stipulation for Monday's Intercontinental championship match that a DQ could allow the title to change hands was a great wrinkle to throw into the mix to extend their feud at least a little while longer.
Joe thoroughly dominated the bulk of the match, and any time Reigns made a comeback, referee John Cone just happened to step in the way as he looked to prevent a disqualification. Between everything that happened in the corner, to the accidental ref bump and the temptation of the steel steps, everything was paced beautifully throughout. Joe was vocally berating Reigns while getting the upper hand, further pushing Reigns towards the edge, and everything from Joe's suicide dive forearm to the finishing sequence was another big notch in Joe's belt.
The Coquina Clutch was ultimately rolled over and fed into Reigns' winning spear, but there was enough in the way of shenanigans and an uncalled DQ to allow it all to feed the fire and continue this contentious rivalry forward despite a fairly decisive victory for Reigns. Under the right circumstances, an eventual title win could do wonders for Samoa Joe in the long-term.