10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Samoa Joe

6. His Huge, Acclaimed Success Outside Of WWE

Samoa Joe
impactwrestling.com

In the WWE narrative, the only success and accomplishments that matter are those achieved within the confines of World Wrestling Entertainment.

It's rare that WWE ever fully acknowledges outside achievements, and audiences often see the company having to walk a fine line of telling you why a new talent is a big deal, yet not giving you the specifics on that 'why'.

For example, the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Finn Bálor and the Good Brothers have usually found WWE bigging them up as having dominated "in Japan", rather than outright naming New Japan Pro Wrestling and the actual plaudits and titles won by such talents in NJPW.

There are exceptions to this, of course, with a rare mention of the IWGP Heavyweight Title by JBL upon Styles making his shocking WWE debut back at the Royal Rumble in 2016.

When it comes to Samoa Joe, WWE will want you to forget about anything the Samoan Submission Machine achieved in his pre-WWE days. Hell, they wanted you to forget that during Joe's time in the company.

In Samoa Joe, this is a wrestler who has won the respective World Championships of both Ring of Honor and TNA; who was a pivotal part of bringing prestige to ROH's famed Pure Championship; who won awards from the likes of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer for his own performances, his matches and his rivalries; who has three of Dave Meltzer's sought after five-star ratings; and who has had absolute bangers with everyone from Kurt Angle, to CM Punk, to Nigel McGuinness, to Kenta Kobashi, to Christopher Daniels, to AJ Styles, to Brock Lesnar, to Takeshi Morishima, to Daniel Bryan, to Shinsuke Nakamura, and so many more.

Samoa Joe is good. Like, really good.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.