Jeff Jarrett comments on Samoa Joe winning the AEW World Title.
Samoa Joe has been a champion in just about every company he's been in, and his latest accolade is winning the AEW World Title at AEW Worlds End.
Jeff Jarrett has a history with Samoa Joe dating back nearly two decades when Joe started working with TNA Wrestling.
Speaking on his My World podcast, Jarrett commented on his history with Joe and Joe winning the AEW World Title.
“Isn’t it just amazing, the old Randy Savage lesson that he gave me? ‘Double J, stay on the boat.’ Stay in the game. So hat’s off man. You can’t say it’s a story of perseverance and end it at that, but opportunity. You just gotta look at, me and Joe were just talking the other day, he came in in the spring of 2022 and had a movie on deck, so he was gone for a little bit, not long after he debuted. But just looking at him ride, so to speak, and the momentum of it, but I think back to the lunch that I had with Mick Foley in Long Island around ‘03, maybe, and that’s when we talked about all kind of young talent. I don’t know exactly where he’s at in his career, but he had watched some episodes of the show, and he obviously referenced AJ Styles, but he brought up Samoa Joe. That's the first time that I heard, I can’t say that he pitched him to me, but I can say that he was very complimentary of him. We got the opportunity, and Joe, I guess his ROH deal basically expired and he wanted to come on board, and then we brought Joe in. It goes without saying what I think about Joe. He went well over a year without being beat, and lots of pitches and lots of ideas and angles. Of course, everybody wanted to be the first guy to beat Joe, and it just never felt right, and I’m like, we don’t have an opportunity with a guy like a Joe, and my default answer was, Joe can win and still help get guys over. That’s an art. That was taught to me many different ways, from my dad and Jerry Lawler, but it is so true. If you can’t really do that, I don’t think you can really get to a next level. It’s easy to win and get yourself over.
"It’s even more difficult to win and get your opponent over. But Joe could do it, and we rolled along, and had no really end in sight on who was gonna beat him, and then that quick conversation in Orlando from Dave Hawk, which is Kurt’s manager, and said, ‘Hey man, I think you got a shot if you want to have Kurt come on board.’ How all that came together and the Kurt and Joe trilogy, but I am tickled to death for Joe to get this opportunity. But he knows it better than, or as well as I do, now the hard work starts. He is under the microscope in every imaginable way, especially when you look at 2024 and the hyper-criticism and complimentary, it is…it is a pot of boiling water no matter what. But Joe’s up for it, so he’s got his work cut out, but congrats to Joe, no doubt."
Joe is set to make his first AEW World Title defense on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite when he faces HOOK.
Elsewhere during the podcast, Jarrett talked about the growth of AEW. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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