Well seeing as how this is my first article for Online World of Wrestling, I guess I should introduce myself. My name's Matt Szimanski, I live in Baltimore, Maryland, and I've been a fan of this great sport since I was 12, which was about six years ago. In that time I've watched WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, and ROH. And after six years of sifting through that alphabet soup, I've come to the realization that there are two different types of wrestling fan. I'm not talking about the usual classification of "smark", "mark", etc. I'm talking about fans being group based on what they like to watch. There are the fans who watch wrestling for the sports-entertainment aspect first and foremost. They enjoy the wrestling, but would rather watch John Cena play to the crowd and annoy Eric Bischoff than watch a wrestling match. Then there are the fans that are in it for the sport. These are the fans who worship the ground that guys like Chris Benoit walk on, and who are disgusted that guys like JBL and Cena are main eventing over the likes of Benoit and Guerrero. As for me, I fall into the latter category. And when it comes to watching a great wrestling match, I never have to do anything more than open my DVD binder, pull out of Ring of Honor disc, and switch on that night's Samoa Joe match.

I've been a fan of Samoa Joe since the first time I saw him wrestle. It was my first ROH event, The Last Stand, and I was second row to see Samoa Joe team with Jerry Lynn to take on the Briscoe Brothers. The match, in comparison to a lot of Joe's other work, wasn't anything special. But "not anything special" for Samoa Joe is better than "outstanding" for 90% of the wrestlers on the planet. The man has a presence in that ring that is comparable to that of a Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit of today, or a Ric Flair or Ricky Steamboat on years gone by. Quite simply, Samoa Joe knows how to wrestle, and he can do it better than almost anyone on the planet.

Samoa Joe was the man who made the Ring of Honor Heavyweight Title into the Ring of Honor World Title. Joe held that belt for over 21 months, winning it from Xavier on March 22, 2003, and losing it to Austin Aries on December 26, 2004. In that timespan, he defended the belt against all comers, in ROH, other Indies, and around Europe. It is because of Samoa Joe that many fans consider the ROH belt to be the most important belt in the world today. While it may not have the exposure of WWE's top titles or even TNA's championship, the ROH World Title has been booked better than any of those belts over the past several years, and pound for pound caries more value than the belts around the waists of Raven, Batista, and John Cena.

I know a lot of fans are turned off by Joe's appearance, and automatically put him in the same category as a guy like Rikishi. Now I'll be the first to admit that Joe doesn't have the body of a John Cena, or even a Jeff Jarrett. But what these fans don't realize is that Joe doesn't need to be absolutely ripped. Joe is a big badass who doesn't care what people think of him, and whose sole focus is to take care of business inside the squared circle. Joe has an aura about him that simply radiates the message, "Don't screw with me, or it will be the last thing you ever do." Wrestling is sorely in need of guys like that today.

Joe's physical shape always leads to questions about his conditioning. People who have only seen him in TNA speculate that the reason Joe never works a match that goes longer than 15 minutes is because he physically can't. They assume that he'd get blown up and fans would see that he wasn't the legit badass he was built up to be. For fans that have followed Joe on the Indy scene, they know that there's no truth to these speculations. The reason Samoa Joe rarely works long matches is because it doesn't fit with his character to work long matches. He's got a Goldberg-esque feel to him, in the sense that he can demolish most of his opponents in short order. But when the time is right for Joe to go long, he can do it easily. Just ask CM Punk.

Samoa Joe's trilogy with CM Punk in the Ring of Honor promotion is the stuff of legend for those who have been lucky enough to witness it. This series, for Samoa Joe's ROH World Title, consisted of a One Hour Draw on June 12, 2004 at World Title Classic, a One Hour Draw on October 16, 2004 at Joe vs. Punk II, and a Samoa Joe victory in a No Time Limit match that went about 31 minutes on December 4, 2004. The series has drawn incredible reviews, and has been compared by many to the Flair/Steamboat NWA Title series back in 1989. The second match in the series became the first match in North America since October of 1997 to garner a 5 star rating from Dave Metlzer's Wrestling Observer. Think about that for a second. That means that every match you've seen on American soil since October '97 was inferior to this match. Austin/Rock, Benoit/Jericho, Benoit/Angle, Angle/Lesnar, Guerrero/Van Dam, every TLC match, they all were inferior to Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk. I can't really offer any more proof that Samoa Joe can go the distance than to say that his One Hour Draw in ROH was the best match on American soil in seven years.

Mainstream fans are just now discovering this hidden secret that ROH fans have known about for years. Samoa Joe went from a relative unknown to a TNA main eventer in a span of two months, and rumors are already flying that he may hold the TNA World Title by the New Year. He's the current ROH Pure Champion, and has taken that belt from midcard mediocrity to main event status in a 3 month span. He is consistently a participant in the best match of whatever card he's on, and has garnered a cult following comparable to that of Tommy Dreamer in late-90s ECW. Joe has become the face of Ring of Honor, and is quickly becoming the face of Total Nonstop Action. Samoa Joe represents the absolute best in the world of professional wrestling today. He is the standard of excellence, he is the measuring stick.

Quite simply, Samoa Joe IS pro wrestling.

by Matt Szimanski ..