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

Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki (October 5, 2002)

A few months before that, though, Joe made his Ring of Honor debut. He was brought in as a “hired assassin” to take out Low Ki by Christopher Daniels. The match was a brutal, hard-hitting affair that is absolutely must see, and while Joe lost his debut match against Ki, he only lost two more matches in ROH against Bryan Danielson and Homicide, and they would stand as the only 3 blemishes on his record for a long time to come.

Title Win: Xavier vs. Samoa Joe (March 22, 2003)

Xavier’s run as champion was underwhelming, as he was not the quality of performer that Low Ki was, and when put in the ring against the likes of AJ Styles and Paul London, it was abundantly clear that he was not the right man to hold the championship.

In 2003, it was looking to be a year of poor matches in the main event if Xavier continued to work at the top of the card. Thankfully, it was only March when ROH made the change, and Samoa Joe’s title reign began. Joe’s reign as champion started with a bang when he crushed Xavier in less than 12 minutes.

1. Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Matt Stryker vs. “Reckless Youth” Tom Carter (April 12, 2003)

However, the next defense of the title was overshadowed greatly, as Joe was placed in a Four Corner Survival match that didn’t even main event the show. Joe, previous to the match, defeated Hotstuff Hernandez in less than seven minutes. Joe then went on to face Colt Cabana, Matt Stryker (not to be confused with the Commentator and wrestler Matt Striker), and Tom Carter, all of which were midcarders in ROH at the time.

While Colt Cabana was easily the biggest star in the match outside of Joe, Cabana was still relatively new to ROH. The primary focus of the show was a best 2 out of 3 falls match between Bryan Danielson and Paul London that went for nearly 40 minutes.

While Joe succeeded in defending his title, there is no way that it could be considered a true main event match-up when it did not close the show, or even come close to being the main event.

 2. Samoa Joe vs. Doug Williams (April 26, 2003)

At Ring of Honor Retribution, the focus was, again, not on Joe and the ROH Title, but on Christopher Daniels, Amazing Red, and Paul London, who all competed in a Round Robin Challenge against each other. The semi-main event was the finals of the challenge as Christopher Daniels defeated Paul London and left as easily the biggest star on the show. Homicide earned an ROH Title shot by defeating CM Punk, and Samoa Joe now had a contender for the future.

While Joe was overshadowed by Daniels and London, Joe’s match with Williams was fantastic and definitely pointed towards things to come for the new ROH Champion.

3. Samoa Joe vs. The Zebra Kid (May 17, 2003)

On May 17th, ROH held their first international show while working with the FWA out of England. Joe was again overshadowed by a main event between Jody Fleisch and Christopher Daniels. However, this title defense is notable not only for the utter destruction of Zebra Kid (which saw Joe literally kick his foot through fenced barricades while beating on Kid), but led to Samoa Joe cutting a promo after the match declaring the ROH Championship to be the ROH World Championship.

Slowly, but surely, Samoa Joe was beginning to carve out a legacy with this championship that no others have been able to match since.

4. Samoa Joe vs. Homicide (May 31, 2003)

Finally, Homicide had his chance at the ROH World Championship. The title was no longer just a regional title, but one that would be defended worldwide, and suddenly the stakes were higher in every single title match going forward. Homicde was unable to defeat Joe, and Joe’s reign continued.

However, this was not the last Joe would see of Homicide in his title reign, and the next encounter was one that was significantly more brutal. In the meantime, Homicide continued his feud with Steve Corino, that culminated in a No Ropes, Barbed Wire Match that ended with Homicide on top.

5. Samoa Joe vs. Dan Maff (June 28, 2003)

Samoa Joe continued to knock down every challenger to date, Dan Maff included. Maff was a member of the stable led by Christopher Daniels called The Prophecy. The Prophecy was against everything ROH stood for – Honor, sportsmanship, and quality wrestling. Maff worked his way up to a title shot after destroying much of his own competition in a similar way to Joe. Joe was in the ring with a man that was physically his equal, a situation that Joe hadn’t experienced yet in his ROH World title reign.

This match was a physical one with both big men hitting hard, and continuing to try and top one another. However, Joe’s toughness and sheer physical dominance continued, as Joe went from being a champion that defended the title in the midcard to being the man who closed the show.

Slowly, but surely, Joe’s reign was becoming one that the ROH World title was being defined with.