Samoa Joe is the perfect champion for this phase of All Elite Wrestling

There are a lot of things going on in All Elite Wrestling that have fans excited. People are debating about whether Swerve Strickland, Will Ospreay, or someone like Jay White is the next man to hold the championship. But many push back and call for them to “hold their horses” as a certain cowboy would say. Samoa Joe is the perfect champion for AEW today. It’s almost as if he’s the medicine that the promotion didn’t want to take to cure all its illnesses.

Samoa Joe walked out of AEW Revolution with the world championship still firmly in his grasp. He defeated Swerve and Hangman Adam Page, forcing the former to tap out. The social media discourse is now on whether Page did that despite Swerve’s championship dreams. While that is a nice wrinkle in their angle, Joe is still the baddest man in the company.

Joe gives a level of legitimacy in professional wrestling that is almost hard to believe in today’s age. The access that fans have to their favorite performers continues to increase, making it more difficult for them to really see these performers as the world-beaters they appear to be on television. However, Joe isn’t that guy. He 100 percent looks like the type of man who would slap the taste out of your mouth if you gave him a reason to do it. He carries that same gruff nature with him to the ring that made him a prospect to watch more than 20 years ago. But now, he does it with a lot more zeroes in his bank account.

Samoa Joe represents everything that AEW means to professional wrestling in the ring and on the microphone, but he is also the perfect champion as the company transitions away from CM Punk, The Elite debacles, and while MJF recovers on the sideline. He’s sports entertainment and entertaining professional wrestling. Joe also has exposure and media training outside of wrestling. This is a valuable skill set for the person who is the spokesperson for the company. Tony Khan doesn’t have to worry about finding an embarrassing headline or social media post from his current champion.

“I think you summed it up perfectly, that was last year,” Joe said while speaking about backstage drama during the AEW Revolution post-event press conference. “This is the AEW under my reign and as far as our locker room and stuff, I don’t think it’s ever been better.”

These are the exact words the AEW fanbase and locker room should want to hear from the champion. Samoa Joe has long deserved a true run atop one of the most important companies in the business. Now that he’s here, he’s showing everyone why he is perfect for this role at this moment.