Samoa Joe Hands Kofi Kingston His First Loss in Months on WWE Raw

A tag team match on Monday Night Raw this week between Xavier Woods, Big E and The Viking Raiders [...]

By Connor Casey

A tag team match on Monday Night Raw this week between Xavier Woods, Big E and The Viking Raiders quickly turned into a six-man tag match when Samoa Joe jumped Woods from behind and locked in a Coquina Clutch. WWE Champion Kofi Kingston ran down to make the save and make the match change into a six-man tag, but by the end of the bout it was Kingston who was left knocked out in the ring.

Joe managed to sneak up behind Kingston late in the match and once again lock the Coquina Clutch in on the champ, eventually forcing the referee to call for the bell and declare Joe the winner.

The match was particularly momentous, as Joe handed Kingston his first defeat in WWE since his gauntlet match defeat back on the March 19 episode of SmackDown Live. Since then Kingston has defeated everyone in dark matches, television, and pay-per-view, including his WrestleMania 35 win over Daniel Bryan to capture his first WWE Championship.

It's also worth noting that Corey Graves stated during the match that there was a "rumor" that Kingston and Joe's title match at Extreme Rules would be a ladder match. So expect that to be announced sometime in the very near future.

After capturing his first world championship and defending it in a number of televised matches, Kingston made his first successful pay-per-view defense at Money in the Bank when he took down Kevin Owens. He then was challenged on back-to-back shows by a returning Dolph Ziggler, first in a normal match at Super ShowDown and again two weeks later inside a steel cage at Stomping Grounds. Ziggler kept up the same argument last week that he should've been the the one who was granted Kingston's title opportunity way back at Elimination Chamber, leading to a Two out of Three Falls Match where Kingston won and prevented Ziggler from being inserted into the Extreme Rules title match with Joe.

Other matches that have already been announced for Extreme Rules include The Undertaker and Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre, Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss for the SmackDown Women's Championship and Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans. That last bout has three stipulations added onto it — there's a "Winner Take All" stipulation for both Rollins and Lynch's titles, it's a "Last Chance" match for the challengers and it will be an Extreme Rules.

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