Samoa Joe Leaves AEW Full Gear 2022 As TNT Champion

Samoa Joe emerged victorious against Wardlow and Powerhouse Hobbs.

by Andrew Pollard
AEW Full Gear 2022 Samoa Joe
AEW

In somewhat of a surprise, Samoa Joe walked out of last night's AEW Full Gear as the new TNT Champion.

Once this bout was announced as a triple threat affair - with Wardlow defending the TNT Title against Joe and Powerhouse Hobbs - many had speculated that the War Dog could well be dropping his gold. The thing is, most of those speculators predicted it would be Hobbs getting the win, rather than Samoa Joe.

As to how this all went down, Wardlow hit thee of his patented Powerbombs on Hobbs, but Joe hit the former Pinnacle man with a belt shot before Wardlow could pin Powerhouse. From there, the Samoan Submission Machine locked in his trusty Rear Naked Choke on Hobbs to get the win.

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This brings Wardlow's TNT Title reign to an end after 136 days, with the charismatic star having toppled Scorpio Sky for that prize back on a July episode of Dynamite. Of course, freeing Wardlow of the TNT Championship conveniently comes at the time when his long-time rival MJF is now the AEW World Champion - with the Salt of the Earth defeating Jon Moxley for the company's top prize in the Full Gear main event.

For Samoa Joe, he now has two pieces of gold in his possession, as the Destroyer is also the Ring of Honor TV Champion.

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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.