Samoa Joe Beats Apollo Crews in WWE Raw Return from Knee Injury

Samoa Joe made his return to WWE programming on Monday. He stole the spotlight from Nia Jax and made his way to the stage to make his return known.

He would end up facing Apollo Crews in the ring and eventually used his patented Coquina Clutch to register the submission.

The Samoan Submission Machine had been on the shelf since shortly after SummerSlam because of a knee injury.

In September, Joe told Anton Toloui of Sky Sports that he underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus, as well as nasal surgery to correct his breathing.

Joe divulged that he was only performing at 80 percent health and breathing at 60 percent of his capability prior to undergoing the surgeries.

Now that the 38-year-old veteran is back in the fold, he is undoubtedly a threat to rise to the top of Raw.

He nearly did precisely that before getting injured, as he pushed Brock Lesnar to the limit in a Universal Championship match at Great Balls of Fire in July.

Joe performed so well that he got another crack at Lesnar's title as part of a Fatal 4-Way bout at SummerSlam that also included Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.

Although he fell short once again, Joe didn't take the pinfall in the loss, which helped him maintain his credibility moving forward.

Joe has been a top guy at essentially every stop over the course of his career, including Ring of Honor and TNA.

It didn't take him long to reach that level after signing with WWE either, as he became the first Superstar to ever hold the NXT Championship on two occasions.

Despite the fact that Joe is still in search of his first title on the main roster, it is clear WWE views him as a top-tier talent.

He debuted on the main roster as Triple H's mercenary against Seth Rollins, he has defeated Reigns on multiple occasions and he gave Lesnar one of his toughest fights in recent memory.

Joe is very much in the mix when it comes to being a regular main eventer and potential universal champion, and he appeared to be trending toward that prior to landing on the injured list.

Now that Joe has returned, however, he has a golden opportunity to pick up where he left off, and he adds some much-needed depth to the Raw roster in the process.

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