There’s a lot to say about this veteran of the ring.

He’s currently in WWE’s NXT promotion, but he’s been wrestling for a very long

time and has proven himself around the world.

Known for his brutal combination of strikes and submission holds, Joe offers a unique

style of offense, especially for a man of his size.

I know a lot of you guys have been wanting this one, so here it is: Wrestling Origins:

Samoa Joe.

For the first time ever, I can’t figure out how to pronounce a wrestler’s real name,

so I’m just going to refer to him as Joe.

Joe was born on March 17th, 1979 in Orange County, California.

He grew up in Huntington Beach, and even spent some time as a child in Hawaii.

Joe was evidently born to perform, as his family actually founded a Polynesian dance

troupe in the US.

They were actually quite well known and performed at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where Joe made

his stage debut at the young age of five.

Moving forward a little bit, Joe attended Ocean View High School in California where

he would play football.

He was an excellent player, likely due to his natural size and strength, which also

lent its hand to his judo training.

Joe became an all-league football player and a California State Junior Judo Champion, both

noteworthy accomplishments.

After high school Joe worked briefly as a mortgage broker before finding his way to

the UIWA West Coast Dojo at age 20.

Interestingly enough, Joe was there to take MMA classes to help himself get in better

shape.

Prior to this, Joe was a casual wrestling fan but the thought of making it his profession

had never crossed his mind.

Instead, Joe attended his MMA class and as he was leaving, he saw the next class come

in; a pro-wrestling one.

The trainer at the time told Joe to stick around and watch, and he said after that one

session, he was hooked.

Joe, who started at approximately 350 pounds, quickly shed some weight as he started training.

He started out training under Johnny Hemp, and soon after Cincinnati Red as well.

Just 3 months after starting, Joe was thrust into the ring for his debut in December of

1999 against Uncle Jess Hansen.

Joe would quickly sign with Ultimate Pro Wrestling, which was an affiliate of WWE at the time.

He would notably feud with John Cena here in 2000, as well as work with Mike Knox late

that year.

Joe also appeared on WWE Jakked in March of 2001 where he defeated Christopher Daniels.

He would eventually become UPW Heavyweight Champion and held the title for a record amount

of days.

However not everybody believed in Joe, as some time during his UPW career he was told

by Jim Ross that he had no future in pro-wrestling.

Ouch.

In June of 2001 Joe decided to cross the ocean and head to Japan to work in the Zero-One

promotion.

He would become a big name there, competing in multiple PPV’s and participating in many

big shows and tournaments.

He would even become one half of the tag team champions there.

However, despite wrestling under both Samoa Joe and King Joe, he decided to leave when

the promotion asked him to completely change his character.

In October of 2002, Joe made his debut in Ring of Honor where he was only booked for

a single match against Low Ki.

Although he was defeated, he impressed fans and management with his hard hitting style

and was signed to a full time contract.

He would quickly rise through the ranks, becoming ROH Champion in early 2003 after defeating

Xavier.

Joe would hold this title, which had become the ROH World Championship, for a total of

21 months before losing it to Austin Aries in December of 2004.

During this lengthy reign, Joe had an incredible trilogy of matches against CM Punk, with one

even garnering the legendary 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer.

Definitely check out those matches if you haven’t yet.

It’s worth noting Joe did start working in other promotions around this time, and

I’ll get to those soon.

Now after losing his title, Joe would become the ROH Pure Champion after defeating his

protégé Jay Lethal, though would lose it to Nigel McGuinness 3 months later.

Later in 2005, Joe would notably face off against Japanese Superstar Kenta Kobashi which

was awarded another 5-star rating.

In fact, this match was so good that it was named match of the year.

Joe continued wrestling in Ring of Honor until 2008.

During that period, he would be a part of a war against the CZW promotion, tag with

long-time rival Homicide, work a 60-minute Ironman match against Bryan Danielson, and

finally defeat Tyler Black in his final match in November of 2008.

Now before we get into TNA, lets quickly run through some of the other promotions Joe worked

in over the years.

From 2003 to 2007, he worked in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla where he worked with CM Punk, Super

Dragon, and Kevin Steen.

From 2004 to 2006, Joe worked in IWA Mid-South.

In 2006 he also made appearances for the Mexican “AAA” promotion where he worked with American

and Mexican stars alike including A.J.

Styles, Ron Killings, Juventud Guerrera, and even Scott Steiner.

Trust me when I say there are a lot more promotions that Joe has worked in, many I’ve never

heard of myself.

Anyways, lets get on with it.

On June 14th, 2005, it was announced that Samoa Joe had signed with TNA.

He would debut just five days later where he defeated Sonjay Dutt.

This match was when he was given the nickname “The Samoan Submission Machine”.

He would have a short feud with Chris Sabin before entering and winning the Super X tournament

by defeating A.J.

Styles in the finals.

This resulted in triple threat title match with Christopher Daniels defending against

Joe and Styles, with A.J. emerging victorious.

This match was also awarded 5 stars, TNA’s only match to do so.

Joe, who was still technically undefeated at this point, would purposely injure Christopher

Daniels before turning his attention to Styles and the X-Division Championship, which he

would win promptly.

He would brutally beat down Daniels in a title defence to the point where Styles, who was

at ringside, threw in the towel.

This three-way feud continued with an Ultimate X match where Joe dropped the title to Daniels,

though kept his undefeated streak in tact as he wasn’t pinned or submitted.

After a short hiatus from the X Division, Joe would regain his title from Daniels.

However just a little while later, Joe was injured after tearing multiple ligaments in

his knee.

He recovered rather quickly, though upon his return lost his belt.

Once again, Joe wasn’t pinned or submitted, thus still technically undefeated.

This undefeated streak would extend all the way to October of 2006 when Samoa Joe lost

to new TNA recruit Kurt Angle via Ankle Lock, ending his streak at 18 months.

Through the rest of the year, Joe would feud with Angle until suffering another knee injury.

He would return in early 2008 when he became the number one contender for the NWA World

Heavyweight Championship.

However, he would fall to Christian Cage.

Soon though Joe would regain the X-Division belt and also win the Tag Team Championship.

This would interestingly lead to an “all titles on the line” match against Kurt which

he lost after interference by Karen Angle.

After a long feud with TNA management, Joe eventually got a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight

Championship, where he defeated Kurt Angle to become the company’s third Triple Crown

Champion.

He would hold this for 182 days until losing it to Sting.

Joe would be injured later in 2008 as well during a Six Sides of Steel match and would

return in late January.

When Joe returned, he looked quite different.

He was bigger, had a buzz cut, and sported tribal face paint.

He came back brutal as ever, as at one point after attacking Sheik Abdul Bashir, Joe took

him backstage, hung him upside down, and tortured him.

In June of 2009, after seemingly fighting against them, Joe joined Kurt Angle’s Main

Event Mafia after he betrayed A.J.

Styles.

Joe would regularly attack other wrestlers as part of the mafia and soon became X Division

champion once again after defeating Homicide.

However, things took a downward turn soon after.

He lost the title to Amazing Red, lost to Bobby Lashley in a submission match, and his

stable was dissolved after Kurt Angle turned face.

To make matters worse, Joe was suspended for a month by TNA after an outburst stemming

from frustration with the production crew.

Over the next little while, Joe would join up with Jeff Jarrett and Hulk Hogan, feud

with Jarrett after being abandoned, and feud with Crimson which started a losing streak.

He would be defeated by Rob Van Dam, Bobby Roode, and Matt Morgan to name a few.

Moving into 2012, Joe would be paired up with Magnus as a tag team.

Though they wouldn’t capture the titles at first, they were persistent and eventually

defeated Crimson and Matt Morgan to become TNA World Tag Team Champions.

They would defend these titles from February all the way to May.

From there Joe would once again become involved with the X-Division, costing Austin Aries

his match with Crimson.

He would get a title shot soon after but would be unsuccessful.

However, he would get a match for the vacant TNA Television Championship which he won by

defeating Mr. Anderson, becoming TNA’s third ever Grand Slam Champion.

Skipping to 2014 after being relatively quiet, Joe would defeat Low Ki and Sanada to win

the TNA X Division championship for the first time in nearly 4 years.

Just as his reign was picking up steam, Joe was sidelined and stripped due to injury.

When he returned in 2015 he would work with Bobby Lashley briefly before turning heel

again and aligning with Low Ki, MVP, and Kenny King.

However, on February 17th, 2015, Samoa Joe announced that he decided to part ways with

TNA after nearly a decade with the company.

Just 7 days later, Joe was announced to make several appearances in Ring of Honor.

He would issue a challenge to ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe, though was defeated.

He would notably team up with A.J.

Styles in his farewell match against the ROH Tag Team Champions, which they won.

On May 20th, 2015, Samoa Joe made his debut with WWE at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable.

He would save an injured Sami Zayn from a brutal attack by Kevin Owens.

At first, Joe was allowed to work in other promotions while with NXT, and he did, but

WWE quickly changed that and offered Joe a full-time deal.

Joe would make his in-ring NXT debut on June 10th where he defeated Scott Dawson.

He would then take on Kevin Owens a week later after tension between the two boiled over.

The match resulted in a no contest, but they brawled until they were forcefully separated.

Next Joe would team up with Finn Balor to win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament

by defeating the Lucha Dragons, Enzo and Cass, The Mechanics, and finally Baron Corbin and

Rhyno in the finals.

However, Joe would turn heel by attacking Finn soon after.

This set up a feud between Joe and Balor.

Joe would face off against the Demon King at TakeOver: London, though was not successful.

He would get another shot much later at NXT TakeOver: Dallas on April 1st, 2016, but was

once again unable to capture the belt.

However, on April 21st during a live event, Joe would finally defeat Balor to become NXT

Champion for the first time.

Joe would also defeat Balor in a steel cage match in his first defence.

Since then, Joe has feuded with Shinsuke Nakamura to whom he lost the title at NXT TakeOver:

Back to Brooklyn, ending his reign at 121 days.

And there you go, Wrestling Origins: Samoa Joe.

This was a long video so huge props if you made it all the way through.

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Seriously guys, thanks for watching, and I’ll catch you in the next one!