Braun Strowman might try and convince you AEW is filled with flippy floppy wrestlers who The Monster might liken to circus performers. The TNT Title match at Full Gear on Saturday night couldn't be further from that description. Three of the biggest men in the company competing in a match where Strowman definitely wouldn't have been out of place.
Samoa Joe Is Your New TNT Champion
Wardlow has been an incredibly popular TNT Champion, winning the title shortly after he managed to break away from MJF. Along the way, Wardlow formed a bond with Samoa Joe. Two men of that size, with those tempers, it was always going to end in tears. It was just a question of whose tears they were going to be. Turns out they were Wardlow's.
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The two friends-turned-enemies competed for the TNT Title at Full Gear with Powerhouse Hobbs thrown in there for good measure. While Hobbs certainly added to the match, in hindsight, it appears he may have been included so that the title could be switched without Wardlow taking the fall. Joe is now TNT Champion, but he didn't beat Wardlow to make that happen.
Wardlow Wasn't Pinned
No, Joe covered Hobbs to make sure he left Full Gear with twice as many titles as he arrived with. The Samoan Submission Machine has been the ROH TV Champion for a while, and after beating Hobbs, he now has a title for each shoulder. Wardlow will take issue with that, of course, since Joe didn't actually cover him, but that's the risk you take when your title is up for grabs in a multi-person match.
While Wardlow was a popular pick to win the TNT Title, it does feel as if the championship has fallen off the radar a little in the last few months. It'll be interesting to see if Joe can rectify that, especially when it seems nailed on that his first challenger will be the former champion that he didn't technically beat for the title.
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