Interview: AEW World Champ Samoa Joe Talks ‘Big Business’ Ahead of Title Match At ‘Revolution’
Since its inception in 2019, All Elite Wrestling has gone from being the fastest-growing professional wrestling promotion in the world to currently being a place where talent from all over the globe come to see where they stand against the competition. It’s a place where legends like Adam Copeland, Sting and Jeff & Matt Hardy are still making their presence felt while other wrestlers such as Wardlow, Hook and Darby Allin are on the rise. AEW has a stellar women’s division as well with “Timeless” Toni Storm currently being its Women’s Champion while Julia Hart from The House of Black holds the TBS title. The top beltholder on the men’s side is the infamous Samoa Joe, who is currently the AEW World Champion, and he has been for over 60 days as of press time.
Joe has a big match coming up at AEW’s next pay-per-view Revolution happening at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina on March 3. He’s also going to be in Boston for AEW’s special edition of their weekly show Dynamite called “Big Business” that’s going to be at the TD Garden on March 13. We had a talk ahead of both events about his extensive career, the chaos that can take place both inside and outside the ring and what he has going on outside of wrestling these days.
You’re one of a few wrestlers who can say that they’ve been a part of Ring of Honor, TNA, WWE and AEW during their career, so what in your opinion makes All Elite Wrestling stand out from the other promotions you’ve been a part of?
I think when you talk about Ring of Honor, you talk about a company that was about bright young stars coming up. WWE is obviously its own entity with its worldwide appeal & reach and when you talk about AEW, it’s a touchstone of international wrestling. It’s a place where we work across company lines, your favorite superstars from anywhere in the world can show up along with your favorite American stars. That’s what I think the biggest difference is. In AEW, a lot of matchups that might not have been possible anywhere else are always a possibility here.
Especially with wrestlers from New Japan, DDT and CMLL coming over and having matches. This year marks 25 years since you became a professional wrestler back in 1999, so what do you consider to be the biggest reason for this amount of longevity that you’ve had?
With wrestling and recovery, I always understand how much I can push myself and I always take time to recover while making sure that I can heal to a satisfactory state. That’s the main thing and I’m also fortunate to have a tremendous fan base, people continue to come out and want to see me perform. It’s hard to walk away from that, so I think those are the two biggest reasons.
Revolution is coming up very soon on March 3rd where you’re going to be defending your World Championship in a three-way match against “Hangman” Adam Page and Swerve Strickland. When it comes to this type of match where you don’t have to be pinned to be beaten and there’s no disqualifications, how do you prepare for it?
Honestly, it’s tough to prepare for the amount of chaos that comes with this type of match regardless of what you do. If anything, you look to focus on whatever opportunities start to open up within the realms of that match and take advantage of what you can. It’s such a chaotic atmosphere when it comes to three-way matches, when you think of how you’re going to win, that’s when it’s snatched away from you. It’s not very conducive for having a strategy, so you have to keep your head on a swivel and make sure you get the job done.
The big thing about Revolution is that it’s going to be Sting’s retirement match with him and Darby Allin defending the AEW Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks in a tornado tag match. What are your thoughts on this? I know you and Sting were part of a bunch of matches in your TNA days together.
Obviously, it’s a tremendous honor to be part of the final show of Sting’s career. I’ve had the pleasure of competing against him in the ring, I grew up watching him on television and to this day he’s still out there kicking ass doing what he does. To see him wrap up his career with AEW and given the proper respect he deserves for his contributions to the entire industry, it feels right. I’m very happy to be on the show and I’m very fortunate to have spent so much time with Sting during my career.
Following Revolution, AEW is going to be putting on a special edition of Dynamite called “Big Business” at the TD Garden in Boston. How would you describe your experience when it comes to wrestling in Boston? Are the crowds there different at all from other crowds you’ve wrestled in front of?
I love working in Boston. Every championship I’ve captured has been in the realms of New England and the Boston area, so I look forward to every time I get a chance to come back there. If there’s one thing I know about Boston fans, it’s that they want to see a fight and I’m out there to cause one. We have this nice little accord, and it seems to show out every time we get to the arena, so I’m always excited to come back.
Outside of pro wrestling and being the AEW World Champion, do you have anything else going on pertaining to acting or voice over work? I know you just had the television adaptation of Twisted Metal come out last year with you doing the physical performance of the character Sweet Tooth and you did the voice of King Shark for the new video game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
I do have a couple of projects that have yet to be announced. I’d love to share what they are, I really, really would, but I can’t as of this time. We’re also gearing up to start filming season two of Twisted Metal and I’m really looking forward to that.
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