10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Samoa Joe

2. He's Good Pals With CM Punk

Samoa Joe
Ring of Honor

Back during the early 2000s, a whole host of wrestlers were getting all kinds of buzz on the internet.

While names like Amazing Red, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Spanky and Bryan Danielson were all making waves, two wrestlers who were leading the charge for this group of 'hot young things' were CM Punk and Samoa Joe.

Punk and Joe were putting on great match after great match, establishing their reputation as two of the hottest wrestlers on the planet. That was just when each man was competing against other opponents; when you put the two in the ring together, you would so often get wrestling gold.

These two grapplers had done battle in the years before and after, but particularly must-watch is the utterly flawless CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe trilogy that played out across the second half of 2004. With Joe as the reigning ROH World Champion, the pair battled to two 60-minute time limit draws before a third bout which saw the Samoan Submission Machine finally get the better of the Second City Saint.

Away from their in-ring battles, CM Punk and Samoa Joe are great friends in real life. So much so, the pair were quick to interact on Twitter as soon as Joe was given his WWE release.

For WWE, one has to imagine that they want as few wrestling fans as possible to be aware of this close friendship - especially with both men currently free agents and both already having teased one final showdown somewhere down the line.

In this post: 
Samoa Joe
 
Posted On: 
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.