AEW star feels his feud with Samoa Joe did not reach its full potential

An AEW star had a lot of expectations from his feud with Samoa Joe and feels it failed to realize its potential.

Samoa Joe is a well-traveled athlete with a long and illustrious career in pro wrestling, working in almost all the major promotions in the world. During his current stint with AEW and ROH, he has held the TNT championship twice and is the current ROH World Television Champion.

During an interview at Terrificon 2023 (via Fandom Spotlite), Wardlow talked about his feud with the Samoan Submission Machine failing to reach its full potential. He felt that it had much more to offer than it ended up being.

Speaking on the contrary, the former TNT champion also stated that a feud that was able to realized its potential was his spat with current AEW World Champion, MJF. Wardlow also spoke about Powerhouse Hobbs, stating that he does not want to wrestle him again, and added that he would rather form a tag team, with Hobbs as his partner.

"For me, it was most definitely Samoa Joe (feud that didn’t reach its full potential). We are capable of so much more. I envisioned myself and Joe being something so much more than what it was. But it is what it is. Max and I, it reached its full potential, but I think there’s so much more to go… I’d rather team with Powerhouse Hobbs I think. I’m done wrestling Powerhouse Hobbs (he laughed). I think we would make a hell of a tag team." [H/T Post Wrestling]

Wardlow made his debut on the November 13, 2019, episode of Dynamite by attacking Cody Rhodes and soon aligned himself with Cody's Rival, MJF, becoming his bodyguard.

MJF and Wardlow worked together for more than two years and even formed a group called The Pinnacle. However, the mounting dissension between the current AEW World Champion and Mr. Mayhem led to their split, with the latter superstar turning babyface. They got embroiled in a rivalry, which ended with Wardlow breaking free from MJF's contract by beating him at Double or Nothing 2022, signing his contract with AEW (in storyline).

After parting ways with The Devil, Wardlow found success in singles competition and became a three-time TNT champion, and faced Samoa Joe and Powerhouse Hobbs multiple times with the championship on the line.

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Wardlow's last AEW appearance was on the debut episode of Collision

On the first episode of Collision on June 17, 2023, Wardlow lost his TNT title to Luchasaurus. After the match, it seemed the rivalry between Wardlow and Luchasaurus would continue for the foreseeable future.

However, the 35-year-old star has not been seen on AEW programming since his loss, which has made fans scratch their heads about his future in the company.

However, as per recent reports, Wardlow's absence might have been due to him getting his passport stolen a couple of months back, which prevented him from entering Canada.