WWE: Samoa Joe is already this year’s King of the Ring

Samoa Joe might be facing long odds when it comes to the King of the Ring tournament, but he’s already proven himself to be WWE royalty in 2019.

A lot has been made about how willing WWE seems to be to let Samoa Joe take massive amounts of high-profile losses, and rightfully so.

At a moment’s notice, Joe could easily carry WWE as the company’s top heel. He’s just that good. With a virtually never-ending string of solid performances both on the mic and in the ring, Joe never fails to engage fans and capture attention.

Take his most recent run in 2019 for example. After a failed attempt at winning Elimination Chamber, Joe would move on to feud with Rey Mysterio for months, trading the United States Championship with the lucha libre legend until Mysterio was forced to take a brief leave of absence due to an injury.

This led to Joe turning around straight into a rivalry with the upstart Ricochet. It quickly led to a title match at Stomping Grounds, which became a star-making performance for Ricochet as ‘The One and Only’ captured his first title in WWE.

After losing the United States Title, Joe still came across as undeterred in his pursuit of glory in WWE. He was moved swiftly into a WWE Championship rivalry with Kofi Kingston, which he again lost.

That brings us to his most recent history, as a feud with Roman Reigns wound up turning Joe briefly into the prime suspect of one of the company’s biggest angles. Now, however, after proving his innocence and freeing himself from potential persecution, Joe will be looking to once again win the big one in the King of the Ring tournament.

If that summary started to make your head spin, then good. It proved it’s point.

The amount of losses Samoa Joe has been forced to endure in 2019 may prove that WWE doesn’t know what it has in “The Samoan Submission Machine”, but it also proves a much larger point.

Samoa Joe might just be the best wrestler in WWE today, and his record this year proves it.

Think about it. Joe has done it all in 2019, and the year’s far from over. He feuded with a legend, put over a young rising star, challenged for the WWE Championship, played a role in one of the hottest angles in the company, and now finds himself making history as a participant in one of the first King of the Ring tournaments in years.

He’s done it all, and he’s done it without flinching, without ever looking fazed too. Joe has effortlessly moved between those storylines without coming off the least bit awkward or misplaced.

In spite of all of those losses, Joe has still looked and sounded like a legitimate threat to whoever he’s facing. I would bet you would be hard-pressed to think of too many other WWE stars who would have that ability in a similar situation.

That all goes without even mentioning the easiest fact to see, which is that Samoa Joe is just a plain great wrestler between the ropes.

None of those matches or feuds have suffered because Joe lacked chemistry with his opponent, or he just had an off night. In fact, quite the contrary when WWE actually gave him time to work.

Ricochet came away looking like the star we all knew he could be after his match with Joe, and put out arguably the performance of the night at Stomping Grounds.

The only time Joe was on the wrong end of the conversation coming away from a big show is when he was forced to suffer through bad booking and unfortunate circumstances in his rivalry with Rey Mysterio. Since then, he’s been solid as can be.

I have no doubts that those kinds of performances will extend to his upcoming matches in the King of the Ring tournament either. Even though it would be challenging to make an argument for Joe as a favorite to win, or even go very far in the tournament, there’s no questioning that he won’t put out some must-see matches along the way.

Starting right off with a bout versus Cesaro, Joe immediately is in a match that would be easy to envision being a show-stealer. From there, a hard-hitting affair with the winner of Ricochet versus Drew McIntyre could likely push either of those superstars into being an even heavier contender than they already were to take the WWE throne.

That’s just how much of a genius Samoa Joe is in that ring. He’s fighting an uphill battle when it comes to winning King of the Ring, but still has to be in the conversation as one of the most must-see superstars in the tournament.

When you add that fact to the long list of matches and feuds which Joe has anchored this year, you can’t help but think that Samoa Joe doesn’t even need to win the King of the Ring tournament this year.

He’s more than proven himself to be a member of the highest echelon of wrestling talent in 2019 already, meaning he shouldn’t even need a tournament to prove he’s a king in the WWE ring.