by Daniel Johnson
Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe
ROH posted another clip as part of ROH Throwback Thursday, this time featuring some action from their very first Glory By Honor show. This was before Samoa Joe had his monster run with the ROH World Championship. In fact, it was before Samoa Joe had wrestled a single match for this promotion as this is the very beginning of his ROH tenure. Look at him. Blonde hair and barely even fat. It is getting tougher and tougher to remember that Samoa Joe.
The storyline going into the match was that Joe was Christopher Daniels’ hired henchman as part of The Prophecy stable. Prophecy members were notorious, in part for never shaking hands with their opponents because Christopher Daniels is evil.
The mach starts and both wrestlers stay in fighting stances while hitting light strikes before Joe clamps on a leg submission. It looks like an MMA match as Low Ki gets in the ground and pound position before Joe flips him over for some headbutts. Low Ki keeps fighting Joe on the ground, but soon finds himself in what commentators describe as, “a “U” shape” when Joe attacks with a single leg Boston crab.
As both men rise to their feet a sick back and forth chopfest erupts and turns into a vicious back and forth strike-fest. Low Ki wins the battle with a kick and the fans go nuts for him.
Low Ki cannot celebrate for long as Joe springs back up and knocks his opponent down with a lariat, which leads back into some MMA style action along with a few wrestling maneuvers thrown in here and there.
The first “oh my God” moment of the match has to be when Low Ki Tiger suplexes Joe despite the crowd barely popping for this. Oddly enough an exchange of open hand chops ending once again with Low Ki kicking Samoa Joe gets more of a reaction.
Joe comes back from a Low Ki kick again by eventually clamping on an STF after a thunder fire bomb. Low Ki wiggles out of this submission and briefly locks on his own hold. Low Ki really starts to narrow in on Joe by repeatedly using all of his body weight to pull down on Joe’s arm.
The second and final “oh my God” moment comes when Low Ki gives Joe a belly-to-back suplex as if Joe weighed 150 lbs.
The pace slows WAY down as Joe hits a death valley driver and then an island driver, but neither puts Low Ki away. Low Ki slowly gets up and he and Joe stare each other down. Joe knocks Low Ki down once, but Low Ki gets right back up for another stare down. They trade chops, they trade kicks and Joe finally starts staggering. Low Ki swings wildly with his fists and Joe can’t take any more and collapses to the mat. Low Ki quickly pins him for three.
Despite members of The Prophecy never shaking hands, Joe accepts a handshake from Low Ki to close out the bout.
Categories: Wrestling Clips
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