A Look At Samoa Joe’s Legendary ROH Career
Samoa Joe may be the most legendary wrestler to ever compete in Ring of Honor. Though he wasn’t the first ROH World Champion, he is often credited with legitimizing both the title and the company with the strength of his title defenses. Nearly everything he did during his four and a half years with ROH turned to gold, and the work he did elevating his many opponents can’t be overstated.
Debuting as a hired gun for Christopher Daniels and the Prophecy, Joe’s first match in ROH was an extremely stiff battle with Low Ki at Glory By Honor. Though he lost the match, Joe made himself a star in one night with the showing he had and, ironically, would end up taking Low Ki’s spot as the top star in ROH.
Joe never quite saw eye-to-eye with Daniels, and his insistence on following the Code of Honor frequently caused friction with Daniels, who needed to be reminded several times that Joe was a hired gun for the Prophecy, not a member. Joe eventually left the Prophecy and joined Steve Corino’s group in their feud against the Prophecy. Though the group was short-lived due to Corino’s frequent absences, it put him firmly at odds with his former employer.
Joe dealt the Prophecy a major blow at Night of Champions when he defeated Xavier to win the ROH World Title. Joe was already over with the ROH fans because of his in-ring work, and taking the title from the hated Xavier certainly helped his standing, but Joe had just begun a journey that would make him a bonafide legend in the then-fledgling company.
For 21 months, Joe defended the title against all comers, including top-caliber challengers like Christopher Daniels, Doug Williams, Homicide, Colt Cabana, Dan Maff, and of course, his legendary three match series with CM Punk. The Joe-Punk feud was instrumental in keeping ROH alive in 2004, and the word of mouth the series got made national stars out of both men. Their first and second matches were the first 60 minute draws for a major wrestling championship since the days of the traveling NWA World Champions, and that alone made people take notice and created a trend of ROH main events going past the 30-40 minute mark on a regular basis.
Joe finally lost the title to Austin Aries at Final Battle 2004, signaling the end of an era for fans who had only ever known Joe as champion and would now have to get used to that honor passing into the hands of other wrestlers. Joe immediately set his sights on a new challenge: winning the Pure Title and eventually making history again by becoming the only man to hold every title in ROH. The Pure Title was held by his protege Jay Lethal at the time, but business was business, and Joe claimed the Pure Title from Lethal at Manhattan Mayhem.
As good of an ROH World Champion as Joe was, he never quite had the same impact as the Pure Champion. Joe only held the Pure Title for a few months, and often seemed to lose sight of the rules by blatantly punching opponents or otherwise committing flagrant acts that cost him rope breaks. He came close to losing on technicalities several times because he was such a poor fit for the title, and was defeated by Nigel McGuinness after a mere three month reign. Nigel was much more suited to the Pure Title and would go on to make it his own, mastering the rules to such a level that neither Joe nor anyone else was able to take it from him for almost a full year.
Joe now set his sights on his final goal, the ROH World Tag Team Title, and the man he wanted to join him on that journey was Jay Lethal. Despite Joe beating Lethal for the Pure Title, the two had developed a strong bond over the course of the last year, and Joe never thought twice about asking Lethal to be the man who stood by him in his quest to become ROH’s first triple crown winner. They had nearly beaten BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs to win the then-vacant ROH World Tag Team Title earlier in the year, so with a little more seasoning under their belts, Joe and Lethal felt they had a good shot at becoming the champions.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite pan out the way they had hoped, and after losing a #1 contender’s match to Austin Aries & Roderick Strong at A Night Of Tribute, Lethal decided he didn’t want to be treated like Joe’s sidekick anymore and challenged him to a rematch to prove that he was good enough to be seen as Joe’s equal. Joe injured his knee when they faced off again at Steel Cage Mayhem, and rather than give his mentor time to recover, Lethal went after the injured knee like a shark who smells blood. Lethal knew that respect for his mentor had caused him to pass up opportunities to beat Joe the last time around, and even though the fans began to turn on him, Lethal had learned from his past mistakes and wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by.
However, Lethal took things too far when he used a steel chair to inflict further damage to Joe’s knee. The Lethal victory was almost academic at that point, but even beating Joe wasn’t enough, he wanted to send a message by leaving his now former mentor laying. He continued attacking Joe’s knee with the chair after the match was over and walked off after casting a disgusted look at the fallen Joe.
The feud with Lethal ended almost before it began because Lethal had a falling out with ROH management, and he left the company after losing to Joe at the 4th Anniversary Show. Joe soon wound up in an equally personal and far more violent feud for much of 2006, leading ROH in their war against CZW. Though ROH lost every match to the CZW invaders for the first several months, Joe gave his all to defend the company’s honor against the ultraviolent CZW roster. He led the charge against CZW in a number of violent no DQ matches, including ROH beating CZW in their own Cage of Death to win the feud at Death Before Dishonor IV.
With CZW out of the way, Joe decided to set his sights on becoming the first man to hold the ROH World Title twice. The title was around the waist of Bryan Danielson by this time, a man he knew very well, and a man who had nearly cost ROH the win at Cage of Death to take a cheap shot at Joe. That made their series of matches in late 2006 both business and personal, but while Joe did pick up a couple of non-title wins, he wasn’t able to put the champion away when the title was on the line. He and Danielson went to a time limit draw at Fight Of The Century, and then Danielson beat him in a rematch in a cage later that Fall.
As 2007 dawned, ROH informed the fans that Samoa Joe, who was under contract to TNA and had been appearing for both companies for a year and a half, would be leaving ROH to concentrate on his TNA career. After one final shot at the ROH World Title, losing to new champion Homicide (who had unseated Danielson at Final Battle 2006), Joe embarked on his farewell tour over the course of the Fifth Year Festival. He defeated Takeshi Morishima in Morishima’s debut match (one night before Morishima beat Homicide to win the ROH World Title) in New York, Jimmy Rave in Philadelphia, and Davey Richards in Dayton. He was pinned by Nigel McGuinness in a tag match pitting Joe and Homicide against McGuinness and Morishima, but beat McGuinness in an extremely hard hitting battle in Liverpool before beating Homicide in his final ROH match.
Though Joe did return a couple of times in the years that followed, the Fifth Year Festival at least poetically marked the end of perhaps the most important founding father of Ring of Honor. Every ROH World Champion since Joe has been compared to him, and to this day he retains the record for the longest ever ROH World Title reign. Others have been referred to as founding fathers or ROH legends, but Samoa Joe is THE legend of Ring of Honor.
Notable Accomplishments & Trivia:
-1x ROH World Champion (longest reign in ROH history)
-First man to defend the ROH World Title internationally
-1x ROH Pure Champion