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4. Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima - ROH Fifth Year Festival: NYC
You had two big brawlers, both of which weighed near the 300-pound mark. Yet of the two, Morishima was the bigger man, and he used that superior size to his advantage. Morishima got so much out of so little by demolishing Joe with his weight. He even managed to make a butt splash look painful, which isn’t something most people can do. Sometimes people don’t want to see grappling, but an old-school hoss fight. This is one of those contests.
Yet in classic ROH fashion, you had big men doing things big men aren’t meant to do. This included Morishima hitting a missile dropkick and Joe hitting an elbow suicida through the ropes like he’s Daniel Bryan. It’s amazing athleticism like this that made ROH such a great promotion to watch in the 2000s.
If there’s one thing this match proved, it’s that Samoa Joe had all the tools needed to be a true wrestling superstar. Even without the WWE-approved chiselled physique, Joe told a great story in the ring. He even showed some phenomenal strength by lifting Morishima onto his shoulder for the Muscle Buster (again, Morishima weighed almost 300 pounds, and Joe held him on one shoulder), which was one of the greatest visuals of the entire year.
