Samoa Joe is a bad, bad dude; since making his way to AEW and eventually Ring of Honor after a long and very up-and-down run in WWE, Joe has won almost all of his matches, had made friends with Wardlow – even if that only lasted a few weeks – and ultimately won a pair of titles for his troubles, first the Ring of Honor Television Title from Minoru Suzuki and then the AEW TNT Title in a three-way match with “Mr. Mayhem” and Powerhouse Hobbs at AEW Full Gear.

Dubbing himself the “King of Television” because he holds both of Tony Khan's television-themed belts, Joe has been on a roll since returning from his stint filming Twisted Metal in New Orleans alongside Mike Mitchell of Doughboys/The Birthday Boys fame, beating Darby Allin for AEW's belt on Dynamite in a match folks really seemed to like online, and then following it up three days later at Final Battle with a win over Juice Robinson – who admittedly looked like a star – in both of their returns to ROH.

Tasked with wrestling after The Briscoes-FTR III, which is among the toughest asks imaginable in wrestling, Joe held his own and was over in a huge way against a very promising young performer with wins over Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega, out-chopping him, out-punching him, and, ultimately, out-lasting him on the way to his second-straight championship win of the week. Even if Joe isn't the same athlete he was a decade ago, the 43-year-old can very much still go and showed that in a powerhouse win on the brand he helped to build from the ground up.