Real Reason Why Samoa Joe No Showed AEW Fan Fest Yesterday

The Samoan Submission Machine was absent from yesterday's AEW meet and greet event.

by Andrew Pollard
Samoa Joe ROH
ROH

While the big wrestling story of today is MJF no showing yesterday's AEW Fan Fest and potentially being off tonight's Double or Nothing PPV, one other notable absence from Fan Fest was Samoa Joe.

Despite initially being advertised for this event, the Samoan Submission Machine was not in attendance for Fan Fest. Rather than a similar situation to that of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, though, Joe's absence was merely due to prior commitments and crossed wires.

As per Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful, the current ROH TV Champion was double booked this weekend. This was a case of miscommunication, with one source telling Sapp that Samoa Joe was at a voiceover session yesterday.

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In terms of Double or Nothing, Joe is set to face Adam Cole in the final of the Men's Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. The Destroyer toppled Max Caster, Johnny Elite and then Kyle O'Reilly to earn himself a spot in said final, whilst Cole bested Tomohiro Ishii, Dax Harwood, and Jeff Hardy to cement his spot opposite Joe.

Where MJF is concerned, the latest update there is that he was booked on a flight out of Las Vegas last night, although it's not known if he actually took this flight or not. Of course, Las Vegas is the location of tonight's huge Double or Nothing show.

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Senior Writer
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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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.