It was two years ago that Joe returned to ROH and arrived in AEW.
April 1st, 2022 was the date of that year’s Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor and the conclusion of the event featured the return of Samoa Joe.
Fast forward to present day, Joe is the reigning AEW World Champion and ahead of the Dynasty pay-per-view, he sat down with Renee Paquette to record an episode of her Close Up show. He looked back on his return at Supercard of Honor. Joe believes the idea was to put him in ROH as it is a familiar setting in addition to him coming back from inactivity.
I mean obviously, Ring of Honor holds a very special place in my heart. To come back to it after all these years and to help it in its next iteration, to become a champion and represent the brand once again. It was a tremendous honor for me and it means a tremendous amount to me because Ring of Honor is a place where I made my mark in the world. Ring of Honor is a place where several, several very talented grapplers of the industry over have made their mark and I think it’ll go down in the annals of history as one of the most influential organizations to ever be in this industry, so to come back and be a part of that, it meant a tremendous amount to me.
I think that the ceiling of where I was, oh, this guy, he’s coming off of a lot of inactivity. We’ll put him in ROH. He’ll do what he does there, do what he does best and it’ll be a little bit more familiar atmosphere for him than AEW and listen, if I get a foot in the door anywhere, I’m gonna kick it wide open, I’m gonna take things over. There was no different anywhere else I’ve worked, there’s no different here in AEW.
Joe had a reign as ROH World Television Champion that placed him as the longest-reigning champion in the title’s lineage.
The next challenger to Joe’s AEW World Title is Swerve Strickland and their match is taking place at the Dynasty pay-per-view.
If the quote(s) in this article is used, please credit Close Up with Renee Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
