Styles And Joe’s Storied History Gains Another Chapter

Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live featured a personal message from Samoa Joe to AJ Styles. As a long time 411er, I remember the days where personal messages were sent between male & female Forumers that had caught some feelings. This was something entirely different. Joe questioned AJ’s ability to be a father & a husband due to his obsession with the WWE Championship. Those are some serious allegations that Styles will need to deal with next week.

Those of us that follow promotions other than WWE know that Styles & Joe have been rivals for the past fifteen years. OK, they’ve been tag team partners on occasion. It’s been a marriage of convenience more than anything else. Promoters love to pit top stars against their top tag team to put them over. It is what it is.

Since Joe & Styles will face off at SummerSlam, I thought it would be prudent to look back some of the biggest matches they’ve had before they face off on one of WWE’s biggest events.

ROH War of the Wire
November 29, 2003
Joe successfully defends the ROH World Title

AJ was regularly competing in ROH at this time, but he had already become known as the face of TNA early in that company’s existence. From TNA’s first event, he stood out as their brightest young star. ROH treated him well, but he was still considered a TNA guy as he was on every show & had one of the biggest pushes there. Joe had won the ROH World Title from Xavier back in March & was well on his way to becoming the face of Ring of Honor. Scoring a victory over a respected competitor like Styles in his 9th title defense was helpful.

In case you’re wondering, the “War of the Wire”, a barbed wire match, did not involve Styles & Joe. Homicide & Steve Corino main evented the show in that match to temporarily end their feud.

IWA-MS Ted Petty Invitational ’04: Night 2
September 18, 2004
Styles defeats Joe & Bryan Danielson to win the Ted Petty Invitational

IWA Mid-South is more known for blood & guts than anything else, but back in the early 2000s the promotion was a breeding ground for future WWE Superstars. In addition to Styles, Joe & Bryan, the 2004 TPI included Roderick Strong, Cesaro, Evan Bourne, Kassius Ohno, CM Punk & Austin Aries. Not to mention guys like Nigel McGuinness, Chris Sabin, Jimmy Rave, Petey Williams, BJ Whitmer, Mike Quackenbush & Alex Shelley that didn’t make it to WWE as wrestlers but still made big impacts elsewhere in the business. It just goes to show that you never know when you’ll see the future of pro wrestling.

Styles was already a top star on the indies at this point, as were Joe & Danielson, so this match was more about putting shine on the tournament itself than it was using the tournament to make stars. Which made sense for Ian Rotten, as he didn’t have the funding to keep stars around anyway.

TNA Unbreakable
September 11, 2005
Styles defeats Joe & Christopher Daniels for the X Division Championship

TNA was off of television at the time of this match, as Impact had left Fox Sports Net & would be debuting on Spike TV in October. They filled time during this period by putting on basic storylines & really good matches, including this meeting between Styles, Joe & Daniels that got five stars from Dave Meltzer when that was a difficult thing to do.

Joe was undefeated at the time, and his lack of involvement in the pinfall allowed him to keep that going. He would defeat Styles for the title at Turning Point in December.

TNA Slammiversary 2007
June 17, 2007
Kurt Angle defeats Styles, Joe, Chris Harris & Christian Cage in a King of the Mountain Match for the TNA World Championship

TNA Slammiversary 2009
June 21, 2009
Kurt Angle defeats Styles, Joe, Jeff Jarrett & Mick Foley in a King of the Mountain Match for the TNA World Championship

Ah, the King of the Mountain match. It was a TNA specialty for many years, yet most of us never really understood the rules. Here’s the best explanation I could find:

AJ & Joe were involved in two of these messes, both of which Kurt Angle ended up winning. In 2007, the main story was TNA stalwart Chris Harris standing in for Jeff Jarrett after Jarrett’s wife passed away not long before the event. In 2009, the main story was Mick Foley being forced to defend the championship years after he was useful in the ring. AJ & Joe were around mostly because any multi-man title match had to involve them to have any credibility.

TNA Turning Point 2009
November 15, 2009
Styles successfully defends the TNA World Championship against Joe & Christopher Daniels

This show happened during a transition period between TNA’s old regime & a new regime that would include Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff. Vince Russo decided that he might as well fill some time with the best wrestlers in TNA fighting over the championship. Styles, Joe & Daniels went balls to the wall, just like they did every time they were in the ring with each other. It was a nice ode to TNA’s past, while hopefully preparing for the future.

TNA Against All Odds 2010
February 14, 2010
Styles successfully defends TNA World Title

This one had a bit more booking behind it. The month after their match with Daniels, Joe won a Feast or Fired briefcase awarding him a World title match. In the time between Turning Point & Against All Odds, Styles had turned heel & aligned himself with Ric Flair. Joe had been heel when he won the briefcase, but took some time off & returned in February to target Styles & get his title match.

How about Joe selling that low blow from Flair with a jump? The match at Against All Odds was a No Disqualification match & had Eric Bischoff as referee because Bischoff & Hogan were acting like good guys at the time & didn’t want Flair sticking his nose in. Bischoff even punched Flair out in a moment that had to be a dream come true for him, but Styles took advantage of the distraction to get the win. Hopefully SummerSlam’s match won’t have a similar finish.

SummerSlam 2018
August 19, 2018

As big as Styles & Joe’s previous matches were, fighting for the WWE Championship at one of WWE’s biggest events of the year clearly trumps all their previous encounters. They’ve changed so much since the last time they faced off for a championship, but they’ve stayed the same in a lot of ways. Joe is still the immovable object. Styles is in the role he’s played most of his career, the gritty underdog. I would expect this match to look a lot like their previous ones.

Minus Christopher Daniels, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, & the whole King of the Mountain concept. Daniel Bryan probably won’t appear either.