Samoa Joe

As a child, Seanoa performed for "Tiare Productions", a Polynesian dance troupe founded by his parents in 1965.

Nuufolau Joel "Joe" Seanoa (born March 17, 1979), better known by the ring name Samoa Joe, is an American professional wrestler.

He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the AEW World Champion in his first reign.

Seanoa was born on March 17, 1979, and raised in Orange County, California.

At the age of five, Seanoa performed in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

He became a California State Junior Judo Champion and was an all league football player while attending Ocean View High School.

Seanoa attended college, where he played football.

Before becoming a wrestler, he worked as a mortgage broker.

Seanoa became involved in professional wrestling after attending a Jiu-Jitsu class and being encouraged by instructors to attend a professional wrestling school taking place afterwards, whereupon he "fell in love with it" and began training regularly.

Seanoa attended the United Independent Wrestling Alliance (UIWA) West Coast Dojo, where he trained under Cincinnati Red, Johnny Hemp and, occasionally, John Delayo.

Debuting in 1999, Joe joined Ring of Honor (ROH) soon after its formation in 2002, going on to hold the ROH World Championship for a record 21 months from March 2003 to December 2004 as well as holding the ROH Pure Championship.

He debuted in December 1999 in a match against "Uncle" Jess Hansen three months after beginning his training, adopting the ring name "Samoa Joe".

In 2000, Joe began appearing with the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) promotion, then a developmental affiliate of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), after being scouted by Brett Wagner.

He was named Southern California's Rookie of the Year for 2000.

While in UPW, Joe feuded with John Cena and held the UPW No Holds Barred Championship from March to April 2001.

In February 2001, he appeared on an episode of WWF Jakked, losing to Essa Rios; he was subsequently told by WWF personnel that he "didn't have a future in [the WWF]".

In March 2001, Joe defeated Christopher Daniels to win the UPW Heavyweight Championship; he held the title for a record 258 days before losing to Mikey Henderson in November 2001.

In October 2001, Joe competed in All Pro Wrestling's "King of Indies" tournament that was won by American Dragon.

As part of a working arrangement between Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Shinya Hashimoto's Pro Wrestling Zero-One promotion, Joe made his first appearance in Japan in June 2001 during Pro Wrestling Zero-One's "Shingeki" pay-per-view.

In his debut match he teamed with Keiji Sakoda to defeat Katsumi Usuda and Yuki Ishikawa to become the inaugural Intercontinental Tag Team Champions; the titles were awarded to Mike Rapada and Steve Corino the following month.

Joe went on to take part in the 2001 Fire Festival, finishing second in his block with four points after defeating George Takano and Masato Tanaka but losing to Kohei Sato.

Joe wrestled for many independent promotions from 2001 to 2015, including IWA Mid-South, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, the United Wrestling Federation, Full Impact Pro, and Major League Wrestling.

Joe returned to Pro Wrestling Zero-One in January 2002, where Masato Tanaka and Shinjiro Otani defeated him and Tom Howard to win the vacant Intercontinental Tag Team Championship.

He continued to work for the promotion throughout 2002, participating in a number of its biggest shows and tournaments as "Samoa Joe" and later "King Joe".

He tagged with several other American wrestlers, including Samoan Savage.

Joe took part in the 2002 Fire Festival, finishing last in his block with two points after defeating Kintaro Kanemura but losing to Taka Michinoku, Masato Tanaka, and eventual overall winner Shinjiro Otani.

Joe made his final appearances with Pro Wrestling Zero-One in August 2003 as part of its "Summer Festival 2003" tour.

Wrestling as "King Joe", he competed in a series of tag team matches and six-man tag team matches, including teaming with King Adamo to unsuccessfully challenge Kohei Sato and Hirotaka Yokoi for the All Asia Tag Team Championship.

In 2004, Joe won IWA Mid-South's Revolution Strong Style Tournament.

At Slammiversary in June 2005, he joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he embarked on a 19-month-long undefeated streak that ended in a critically acclaimed feud with Kurt Angle.

During his 10-year stint in TNA, he held the TNA World Heavyweight Championship once, the TNA X Division Championship five times, the TNA World Tag Team Championship twice, and the TNA Television Championship once.

In 2006, Joe won the Twin Wrestling Entertainment Championship and the Ballpark Brawl Natural Heavyweight Championship.

After departing TNA in 2015, Joe began wrestling for WWE on its NXT brand.

After winning the NXT Championship twice, he joined the main roster in January 2017, going on to win the WWE United States Championship on two occasions and headline several WWE pay-per-views and livestreaming supercards.

In 2019, he began working as a color commentator due to accumulated injuries.

He was released from his contract in April 2021, but was rehired that June, winning the NXT Championship a third time before being released once again in January 2022.

Joe was named part of the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame in January 2022, and three months later made his debut in AEW, and concurrently returned to ROH, which by then was AEW's sister promotion following its purchase by AEW co-owner/chief executive officer Tony Khan.

In AEW/ROH, Joe held the AEW TNT Championship twice and the ROH World Television Championship once (at one time holding both titles simultaneously) and set a new record for the longest reign as ROH Television Champion.

He then defeated MJF for the AEW World Championship in December 2023, making him the only wrestler to have held the AEW, ROH, and TNA World Championships.

Outside of wrestling, Seanoa is an actor and voice actor; he is known for playing Sweet Tooth in the 2023 television series Twisted Metal and voicing King Shark in the 2024 video game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.