Ringside

SINCE BECOMING RING of Honor’s savior, AEW President Tony Khan has delivered four winning moments for the brand: kicking off the March 2 edition of Dynamite with the acquisition announcement itself and a match featuring two of ROH’s founding fathers, Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels; moving forward with Supercard of Honor on April 1, despite the fact it ran directly against Rampage; finalizing a deal with ROH champion Jonathan Gresham …

And the fourth? The dramatic AEW debut of Samoa Joe on the April 6 Dynamite. Joe finished off a very game Max Caster with a big elbow and a muscle buster in only four minutes to advance to the inaugural Owen Hart Foundation Cup tourney. Joe capitalized on that momentum on the April 13 edition, defeating Minoru Suzuki in a brutal strike-fest for the ROH TV title, which Suzuki had won from Rhett Titus at Supercard of Honor only 12 days earlier.

For a shining moment, it seemed that Khan had played the wrestling game perfectly. Joe was showing signs of his ROH/TNA prime, and fans were thrilled by the ROH influence on AEW.

Enter the 7’3”, 290-pound , accompanied by and . As an exhausted Joe celebrated his win, Lethal (strike three).