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Honor Rises: A Look at Samoa Joe’s ROH World Title Reign

By Josiah MacDonald

R-Truth & Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe & Andrade. he competitors from the United States Title Fatal 4-Way Match at WWE Fastlane pair off for a tag team battle that ends in chaos. Photo Credit: WWE.com
R-Truth & Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe & Andrade. he competitors from the United States Title Fatal 4-Way Match at WWE Fastlane pair off for a tag team battle that ends in chaos. Photo Credit: WWE.com /
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Joe was one of the leading stars in the war with another Philadelphia based promotion, CZW.

The match that finished the feud saw Joe eliminated by Bryan Danielson as he turned on ROH and smashed him with a chair, weakening his knee. Danielson and Joe proceeded to feud, and even had a 60 minute draw, where Joe came close to reclaiming his title. Joe ended up losing in a cage match, with Danielson being the top guy, but Joe’s continued presence in the main event scene, along with the rise of Bryan Danielson saw ROH’s total attendance grow to 30,950, with an average attendance of 755.

Those numbers increased again in 2007, after Joe left the company in a healthy state with a lot of main eventers to replace him with 33,800 total attendance, and 845 average attendance.

Joe’s legacy in ROH cannot be understated, and when he made a brief return home in 2015, he was naturally treated as a hero and megastar, despite years of being misused in TNA.

Joe has since gone on to win the NXT Championship multiple times, challenge for the WWE Championship, and has recently won the WWE United States Championship. Joe has found success in every single promotion he has ever worked for, and has proven to be a major factor in their growth. Joe’s influence in ROH is still felt until this day.

Jay Lethal may have surpassed Joe in total combined days as ROH World Champion, but Samoa Joe is still the longest reigning champion in the history of the company. Joe’s impact saw Ring of Honor move from being a big independent company to being one of the top companies in the world. Joe laid the groundwork that made it possible for Ring of Honor to sell out Madison Square Garden, and as a fan that has seen Joe live at an NXT TakeOver, it’s easy to see how he did it.

Through being a major, legitimate star, who was believable in everything he did, Joe managed to not only get over himself, but to get ROH over.

Next. RVD vs. Jerry Lynn: 20 Years Later. dark

While Joe won’t be at the G1 Supercard, you can bet that we will see his ROH legacy play out in front of us.

All the statistics about attendance in this article were provided by Lavie Margolin, author of TrumpMania, a book examining the relationship between Vince McMahon and the McMahon family with Donald Trump and how it influenced him. Give Lavie a follow on Twitter for some great analysis of wrestling numbers. The match order and details about Joe’s reign were gathered from CageMatch.

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