Samoa Joe is without a doubt one of the greatest of all time, highly respected by the fans and his peers since damn near the day he started and still as valued and respected 24 years after his wrestling debut. If you ask almost everyone including me, what is your favorite “Samoa Joe run?” They’d most likely would say his work in Ring of Honor & for good reason. Joe’s work in ROH is almost second to none, the man was a hard hitting, trash talking, ole ole kicking Goliath, who’s average match quality was up there with the best of them. Today in this piece I’m going to be focusing on his first 2 years in ROH or as I would like to call It “The Arrival of a Monster”.
The First Dance
For this article I’ve gone back and rewatched every match of Joe’s in his first 2 years, to say he started off with a bang would be an understatement. Samoa Joe’s first match in ROH would be against Low Ki in a Fight without Honor. Joe was hired by The Prophecy to beat Low Ki. These two tore the house down, one of the best matches ever period, it was as hard hitting as can be with sick submissions and exchanges and even in defeat made Joe look like an absolute beast. I think this match is without a doubt his best match in his first two years in ROH, not saying the others were not good or didn’t even reach near this level of greatness but the magic that these two men made on Glory by Honor 1 will never be replicated.
The Rest of His 2002
The rest of his work in 2002 will be a mixed bag, some handicap squash matches, 6 man tags and a 4 way with Steve Corino, Low Ki & Bryan Danielson that reached a 45-Minute draw, Being completely honest outside his debut vs. Low Ki, of these other matches you probably should not go out of your way to watch, but none of this is Joe’s fault I would say, because in every match he looked untouchable, a man that size wrestling the way he was, was nothing short of impressive but the booking of some of these matches made them hard to sit through in some moments like 4 Way for example, felt so out of rhythm because you knew the men just wanted to make it to the 45-minute mark to get the draw. Nonetheless, Joe still looked awesome every time he stepped foot in that ROH ring which was 6 times in 2002
Finding his Footing
2003 would be a very good year for Samoa Joe, as he started off with two good matches if I do say so myself vs. Bryan Danielson, these two would have good showings against each other. Not their best matches against each other, but you could see the chemistry forming and the potential for an all-time classic in there and that is what happened years later. Joe would then win a four way for a number one contenders spot against Homicide, BJ Whitmer and EZ Money. Joe would face Xavier at ROH Night of Champions 2003 and in 10 matches Samoa Joe would become the 3rd ever ROH Champion. From this point on Joe carried a new level of confidence there was more of everything he did before, more trash talk, more cockiness and more hard hitting, jaw dropping offense.
The reign started off pretty decently he beat the likes of Homicide, Colt Cabana, Doug Williams, etc etc, but I would say the reign hit a new level after his match with CM Punk. From this point on Joe had amazing showings vs Jay Briscoe, Chris Sabin, AJ Styles and many more. My Favorite matches had to be against AJ Styles, the Briscoes when teamed with AJ Styles and his match with Mark Briscoe. All these matches showcased something different, the tag match was an awesome showcase of the contrast in styles and the difference of a tag team wrestling and just two men tagging together, the match with AJ Styles felt like a final battle between two end game bosses.
AJ Styles who at this time was damn near untouchable in between those ropes vs a man who for the last year has been smacking the heads off everyone in his path and then a match between Joe and Mark, that now in 2023 makes me emotional in some ways showed the difference in mentality’s between the two men, Joe was on cloud 9 he felt like no one was on his level and his track record had proven that and Mark was just a hungry 19-year-old who wanted people to know that even though he’s in the best tag team in ROH, He’s not just a tag team wrestler.
Mark showed that what makes The Briscoes so great was that it was TWO men that can fend for themselves but as a tag they were just brought out the best in each other. Mark awesome in this match, he was proving to everyone that he can hang with the baddest guy in the company and even in defeat like multiple times in this reign, he looked better than he did before the match. This was a common theme in Joe matches in these first two years, he did what Low Ki did for him in his first match and considering that was the first match of this run and the last match of this run that I watched, I think It’s pretty poetic.
Closing Thoughts
Samoa Joe wasn’t really cemented when he started in ROH and within the first 20 minutes of his run there he proved how good he was and earned the respect of everyone there. Everything else was just icing on the cake as he elevated everyone he worked with, he had the crowd invested in every match even when he wasn’t the dominant unbeatable champion. Joe’s style and ability made him must watch TV. Even 3 or 4 years in Samoa Joe was a generational talent and everyone can see it, there wasn’t “flashes” he was IT all the time, unmatched swagger and unrelenting offense is what made him so special to me and what made this rewatch so so so worth it.
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