Is it Really Five Stars? Joe VS Styles VS Daniels

Welcome to Is it Really Five Stars? Here I take a look at various matches rated five stars by Dave Meltzer and watch them again and determine if the match was really deserving of the five star rating. Today we take a look at the legendary Three-way match between AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels for the X Division Championship from TNA Unbreakable 2005. Chances are you’ve heard about this match and it’s frequently brought up when talking about any of the three individual wrestlers involved, this match and the overwhelmingly positive view of it helped TNA become relevant when it was still a very new promotion, But let’s find out if it was really worth five stars.

After watching the match again, straight up this is one of the greatest matches in the history of wrestling, it’s phenomenal (get it?) in so many ways, the match starts with The Fallen Angel reminding both The Phenomenal One and the Samoan Submission Machine that he is the X Division champion, and then proceeds to get comedically kicked increasingly harder by Joe and AJ in a friendly competition of who can kick Christopher Daniels harder (I would say they both won). Aside from a brief silly spot to start the match, every single moment of this match was as intense as wrestling gets, it was constant action with each move feeling more incredible than the last, it truly was just total nonstop action (I’m sorry please keep reading) Something I really loved about this match was how for the majority of the match, all three wrestlers were in the ring at once, with no wrestler taking a three-minute nap outside the ring while the other two wrestle, a problem that happens in seemingly every multi-man match.

The match showcases each wrestler’s individual strengths, Joe has the clear power advantage, AJ looks like the quickest and most exciting, and Daniels shows true cunning and intelligence one would expect from the defending champion. Although each wrestler has their unique strength, none of them seems to show any particular weakness. Samoa Joe doesn’t seem one bit slower than his two smaller opponents, including where Daniels and STyles are fighting on the outside when Joe hits a twisting suicide dive, over the top rope!

Right onto Styles and Daniels. There is one spot where AJ Styles puts Samoa Joe, all 280 plus pounds of him, in a torture rack submission hold, the strength showcased by AJ is remarkable as evident in the crowd’s massive pop to the spot, and don’t forget about champion Christopher Daniels who slams Joe multiple times, and showcases his athleticism with several breath-taking moonsaults.

The match features a constant theme of combo moves, sometimes one wrestler stringing together moves on a specific wrestler, sometimes hitting a combination of moves onto both of their opponents and sometimes where a single combo of moves involves all three wrestlers, like when Joe Irish whips Daniels into the corner, Daniels jumps onto Aj and sends him to Joe with a monkey flip where AJ lands with his legs around Joe’s neck and AJ hits Joe with a hurricanrana, which legitimately might be the coolest spot in the history of wrestling.

The match ends in brilliant fashion, with Samoa Joe knocked to the outside, Daniels attempts to finish AJ with his finisher, the Angel’s Wings, AJ counters this move into a surprise pinfall to pin Christopher Daniels and win the X Division Championship, this ending is great in many ways, for one it provides a shocking and quick ending to a match that was about as fast-paced of a 20-minute main event championship match as possible, in addition, it also gives AJ Styles the huge win while protecting Samoa Joe, this was in September of 2005, when Samoa Joe was still in the middle of his incredible undefeated streak, Joe was able to not win the match so AJ can win, but crucially, Joe was never beaten, as excellently stated by Mike Tenay and Don West on commentary, keeping the aura of dominance for Samoa Joe.

Like I said earlier, this is one of the greatest matches in the history of professional wrestling, it was a perfect showcase of TNA’s X Division, it was incredibly fast-paced and

exciting while also showcasing brilliant wrestling psychology and story-telling if you ever want to see a great TNA match, a great triple threat match, or simply an excellent wrestling match, you would be doing yourself a huge favor by watching this match.

Is It Really Five Stars? Without a doubt, yes!

Wrestling Trivia:

Who was the last original ECW World Heavyweight Champion before the company closed in 2001?

DM @JackDownVSRaw on Twitter for the answer