12 Best Runs By WWE Stars In OTHER Companies

2. Samoa Joe - ROH

Samoa Joe TNA Entrance
rohwrestling.com

The Samoa Joe legend was built back in the early 2000s, in the early days of Ring of Honor. Joe started out as the hired assassin of Christopher Daniels but soon moved out on his own, wowing fans with his take no prisoners style and his undeniably imposing presence in the ring. Love at first sight isn't an actual thing, but it is difficult to deny in the case of Samoa Joe and Ring of Honor.

Samoa Joe wasn't the first ROH Champion, that honour follows to the educated feet of Low-Ki, but it as the Samoan Submission Machine that made the title one of the most prestigious in the pro wrestling world. Joe defeated Xavier for belt on 22 March 2003, kicking off a reign that ran for a mind-bending 645 days. This is impressive enough in itself, but readers must remember that this was a time when long title reigns just weren't the norm. A few months here and there, sure, but nearly two years?

Joe's ROH Championship reign has gone down in history as one of the great pro wrestling championship reigns. Think Okada 2016-2018, only with more brutal matches. The 60-minute trilogy with CM Punk remains the stuff of legend. Joe eventually lost the title to Austin Aries at Final Battle 2004, bringing down the curtain on one of the great runs in non-WWE pro wrestling.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.