text: 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.
  Independent circuit (2001–2015)
  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. In 2004, Joe won IWA Mid-South's Revolution Strong Style Tournament. In 2006, Joe won the Twin Wrestling Entertainment Championship and the Ballpark Brawl Natural Heavyweight Championship. In the same year, he won the Extreme Wrestling Federation's Xtreme 8 Tournament.
  Ring of Honor (2002–2007, 2008, 2015)
  In 2002, Samoa Joe joined the ranks of the nascent Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), which had been impressed by his work in Japan and on the United States independent circuit. He debuted in October 2002 at "Glory By Honor" as Christopher Daniels's "hired assassin", brought in to defeat Daniels's chief enemy, Low Ki. Originally booked for a single match against Low Ki, Joe impressed fans with his extremely stiff and hard-hitting style that resembled a mixed martial arts fighter more than a wrestler, resulting in ROH booking him full-time.