Minoru Suzuki Versus Samoa Joe For The ROH World Television Title

April 14, 2022

Samoa Joe returned to the Ring of Honor Wrestling landscape at Supercard of Honor 2022 to the joy of the fans watching worldwide but to the chagrin of Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt. Then he would come to the rings of All Elite Wrestling last Wednesday on Dynamite and secure his position in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament by smashing Max Caster. That domination that became synonymous with Joe’s  name over his twenty-two year career was on full display, and it made the former record-setting ROH World Champion an odds-on favorite in the Owen Hart. It made the future for Samoa Joe quite an exciting one just based on that, but then AEW CEO Tony Khan went and upped the ante on Joe’s immediate future…

Minoru Suzuki, after defeating ROH stalwart Rhett Titus at Supercard, laid claim to being the 29th World Television Champion since the title’s inception in 2010. Its lineage boasts the likes of ROH’s first Triple Crown Champion Eddie Edwards, Christopher Daniels, Bobby Fish, Adam Cole, Tomohiro Ishii, Matt Taven, Jeff Cobb, as well as Jay Lethal, and now it was in the possession of one of the most dangerous men in all of professional wrestling. For Suzuki, the ROH World TV Title also holds the distinction of being the first North American based championship he has ever won in his historic career. The man affectionately dubbed “Murder Grandpa” by his fans has been a multi-time champion New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, as well as Revolution Pro in the United Kingdom, but the championship win over Titus marked his first in this part of the world.

For Samoa Joe, this particular ROH championship is the only singles title in company history he has never held. At 645 days, Joe stands as the longest reigning World Champion in company history, in fact he is the man who made the ROH Title a World Title to begin with back in May 2003. He also reigned as ROH Pure Champion for 112 days, taking it from Jay Lethal it should be noted, but the World TV Title did not exist during Joe’s original five year tenure with ROH, and in his brief 2015 return to the fold, it was all trying to reclaim the ROH World Title.  

So now we get to kill two birds with one stone; an absolute dream match and Joe’s chance to become an ROH Triple Crown Champion. It is doubtful anyone thought Minoru Suzuki versus Samoa Joe would ever be a possibility, and yet it is about to go down in New Orleans. It is doubtful anyone expected to see Samoa Joe challenging for any ROH championship ever again, and yet the UNO Lakefront Arena is about to bear witness. And there is no way anyone thought we would see an ROH championship defended on AEW television, and yet it is about to go down live on TBS during Dynamite. The professional wrestling landscape is wildly unpredictable, and this fight here is an example of that in the best possible way. 

It’s Minoru Suzuki versus Samoa Joe for the ROH World Television Title on AEW Dynamite! 

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