The good news for Samoa Joe is that Roman Reigns still hasn’t beaten him one-on-one. The bad news is that The Samoan Submission Machine missed out on the Intercontinental Title, as Reigns decided that, instead of beating Joe, he’d rather beat Joe up.

In other words, Roman remains Intercontinental Champion, even though a burst of excessive aggression forced the ref to call off the match and award the disqualification win to Joe. It’s difficult to blame Roman for the outburst, as Joe’s self-proclaimed “systematic destruction of The Shield” tore Dean Ambrose’s triceps tendon last week, putting The Lunatic Fringe on the shelf for, potentially, up to nine months. Reigns picked up the torch for his fallen brother in truly brutal fashion; the Intercontinental Champion came out swinging, forcing Joe into the uncommon position of fighting from underneath.

Which, ultimately, he did, landing a suicide forearm that tweaked Reigns’ left arm. The Big Dog fought back with one good arm to force Joe into the corner, but once the champion threw the ref out of his way to continue his assault, he was disqualified. Freed from the constraints of the contest, however, Reigns went to town, dropping his foe with a targeted assault of Joe’s shoulder that a squadron of officials was powerless to stop. Joe narrowly avoided Reigns' home-run swing with a steel chair, but the damage may well have been done. Somewhere, Ambrose is most likely smiling. In the backstage area, Seth Rollins visibly was.