5 Austin Aries Matches All WWE Fans Must See

2. Vs. Samoa Joe - Ring Of Honor: Final Battle 2004

It was in early 2004 that I was first exposed to Ring of Honor, and by Final Battle at the end of that year Samoa Joe had been ROH World Champion for an incredible 645 days. I was a diehard WWE fan at this point, and the idea of such a long, dominant title reign was practically unimaginable. The only thing more shocking than Joe holding the title for so long was that a fairly new-to-ROH Aries was the man who took it off him. Joe had defeated anyone and everyone who stepped up the plate in almost two years, including an incredible series of matches with CM Punk. There were a number of references to those matches with Punk, which added to the great psychology on display here. The crowd started to get behind Aries here, despite him being a heel and Joe being the most respected man in all of ROH, as the belief that something special was about to happen grew and grew. The match gets bumped because of the monumental feeling of the ending. Joe was as dominant a champion as one could imagine, but the booking of the match made Aries winning the belt entirely plausible. The crowd erupted when the three count was done, and almost two years of Joe was done. The Age of Aries was upon us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4v-YJ_aTwQ