Samoa Joe got his AEW career off to a victorious start by making short work of Max Caster on this week's edition of AEW Dynamite.
It all went down at the Agganis Arena in Boston Massachusets on Wednesday, April 6. Samoa Joe, AEW's latest free-agent acquisition, went one-on-one with The Acclaimed's Max Caster in an Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifying match ... which did not last very long.
Joe got a huge pop as he made his way to the ring, but he then had to endure one of Platinum Max's raps. Caster referenced Joe's history of injuries and the fact that AEW beat NXT in the ratings while Joe held the main title of WWE's black & gold brand. And then the bell rang, and Joe finished Caster of with a Muscle Buster for 1-2-3, earning a spot in the inaugural Owen Hart Foundation Tournament in the process.
After the bell, Joe's former Ring Of Honor colleagues Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt appeared on the big screen and menacingly promised to deliver a massive present to Joe next week.
In case you missed it, Joe entered a Ring Of Honor ring for the first time since 2015 and was announced as All Elite Wrestling's latest signing on the same night. It all went down at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas on Friday, April 1 -- the eve of WrestleMania Saturday.
Samoa Joe and several of his colleagues were laid off by WWE as a result of budget cuts necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic back in April 2021. Soon after Joe was released, rumors began to swirl that he had been re-hired almost immediately. The rumors proved to be true when Joe made his shocking return to NXT last June.
Joe became the first and only three-time NXT Champion when he defeated Karrion Kross at TakeOver 36 last August. Three days later, he was forced to relinquish the gold due to injury and was released by WWE (for the second time) on January 6.