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I've been covering professional wrestling for over 12 years full-time and one of the things I've learned is that while 99% of the major events are indeed televised, if you truly want to get a proper perspective on important events and moments, you need to be there live and take it all in.
The second TNA announced the first Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle match, I picked up the phone and called one of my best friends, Ish, had him agree to go with me and then booked flights to Orlando. It was that important to witness it live. That's what an important performer Joe was, not just to TNA, but to pro wrestling and that's how historic I thought that bout, Angle's first in TNA, was.
Joe's always been a very unique talent. While he's of Samoan descent, he was never portrayed as the stereotypical "wild man, fisheating, hard-headed" Samoan that many others of that ethnicity have been characterized as. He was not just portrayed as a pro wrestler but as a hybrid fighter, using not only great mat skills but striking. For every dive to the outside (always impressive for someone of his size), there were some hard hitting in-ring wrestling as well.
I've been very lucky to have been there for a number of those moments in Samoa Joe's career. I was there when he walked in as an unknown and walked out a star for his ROH debut. I was there when he defeated the eternally underrated Xavier for the ROH strap. I was there for Joe's first clash against Kurt Angle in TNA and the night he won the TNA belt at Lockdown. I've witnessed the rise of his career and it's been a joy to cover.
Joe's always been a pretty unique performer, a smaller wrestler who worked like a big man's monster, a pro wrestler that one saw as a legitimate badass and when he was Ring of Honor champion, a suave motherf**er who proclaimed, "I am Pro Wrestling."
I've covered Joe's greatest matches and rivalries. I was there when he defeated CM Punk and the night he beat Jushin Liger. I was there the night he and Homicide beat the hell out of each other. I was there the night he and Low Ki beat the hell out of each other. I was there the night he and Kenta Kobashi beat the living hell out of each other (sensing a trend?) in a hotel ballroom in NYC. By that point, I was pretty much accredited to any ROH show I wanted to cover, but I still offered and demanded to pay for front row seats. I knew it was going to be that good..and it was.
As good as Joe is in the ring, he was just as driven outside of it. A huge family man, he took the promotions he worked for to heart as if they were part of his extended family. When he was ROH champion, he lived and breathed the company in everything he did, even turning down a payoff to lose the ROH title on a Japanese tour. He and CM Punk, in the company's darkest hour, put on an amazing 60 minute draw in Dayton, Ohio that turned all the attention from internal issues back to the great wrestling that was revolutionizing the scene.
In TNA, it was no different. Joe was always at the forefront of promoting the company in videogame and other media campaigns. He could be trusted to promote the company, be professional and well spoken and really, the only times he's ever been accused of being anything but a company man were times he lost his sh** over the same frustrations and criticisms TNA's most ardent fans had with the company. He lived for TNA and wanted it to thrive and it drove him nuts when it didn't.
I have seen Joe the warrior and I have seen Joe the company man, pushing the uniqueness of TNA and why it was an important alternative product during media jaunts in New Jersey, Las Vegas and Atlanta. Whether it was closing out a club in Vegas by joining a band on stage at 4 AM to thank videogame media for coming to cover TNA's Midway video game or sitting for hours in Atlanta talking up the TNA action figure line, Joe was the guy who walked in and charmed the hell out of the media like they were his date on prom night. He was that good.
Over time, TNA lost their way with Samoa Joe. His TNA title run fizzled due to poor booking. Every time it was the right call to have Joe defeat someone, say Sting, and ascend to the next level, two things were guaranteed - a lot of run-ins leading to a poor finish or Joe losing. Sometimes, it was both. TNA tried to fix what was already working as well. They tried to morph him into a facepainted, traditional Samoan wrestler. It failed, not because of Joe, but because fans saw him as something deeper and more three-dimensional than some caricature. They tried to write him off by having him kidnapped and tossed into a car...only for him to reappear with no explanation. It made no sense and only served to hurt him.
Like a lot of others, Joe suffered through a number of creative regimes, good and bad, and when the company pretty much rebooted itself when Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff walked in, Joe was one of the biggest victims as his TNA, the one he bled and sweat and cried for, was treated as if it never existed. Joe's TNA existed in name only the last few years. What existed was a jigsaw puzzle that he no longer cleanly fit into, despite the best efforts of Joe and the current regime.
Several years ago, I wrote about the ROH Three, the three talents that were tearing up the world of wrestling, to the point that Mick Foley and others were pushing WWE to sign them. They were at a crossroads, these three, and this time would lead to the next level of their careers. The ROH three? CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe. Two picked WWE, one picked TNA. All became the champions of those companies, just as they had in Ring of Honor.
In recent years, TNA has suffered. Joe's career there is pretty much an analogy for that suffering. He's gotten older (and to be honest, heavier). He's dealt with injuries and he's dealt with trying to navigate the often-ridiculous creative decisions made in pro wrestling while trying to regain that moment where he was seen as one of the most badass men on the planet. His matches and performances were still good to great, but it obvious that extra buzz, that certain something was missing and if it can't be found, no amount of work ethic can fix it.
Something had to break and it did. TNA wasn't going to continue to be able to pay Joe at the level he was accustomed. TNA wasn't going to push him back to the top level of the company, and maybe at this point, they shouldn't. They themselves, like Joe, were victims of their own mistakes and while they themselves have to navigate the way out, Joe, instead had an exit. He took it.
With that exit, as AJ Styles has shown over the last year, comes a new hope. A hope that we are going to see the Joe of old shake off a lot of rust and like Styles, charge forth like a warrior on the battlefield, tearing across the globe with phenomenal matches and brawls that not only tell the world, "I'm back" but tell TNA, "You f***ed up."
There are a lot of outlets for Joe to make this happen. Even if a WWE move isn't in the cards (and it's certainly possible that after all these years, it could still happen, WWE isn't as close-minded as it was a decade ago), a return to Ring of Honor will be a Godsend to the promotion and it's fans. There is a whole new generation of foes and old familiar faces alike for Joe to try and choke out. Samoa Joe entering the Ellis Island of independent wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, sounds just mind-boggling awesome. Joe entering New Japan sounds too good to be true. Joe adding his legitimacy to your local indy? Too much fun to pass up. Joe working TNA guys on the indies? Obviously going to happen.
Joe, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels rematching TNA's most celebrated match? A no brainer. Joe against Jay Briscoe? No brainer. Joe against Willie Mack? No brainer. Joe against Shinsuke Nakamura? No brainer. Joe against Drew Galloway? Colt Cabana? Tommy Dreamer? The Young Bucks? Jay Lethal? Kyle O'Reilly? Roderick Strong? Bully Ray? Trevor Lee? Ricochet? Alberto Del Rio? Tony Nese? Togi Makabe? Drew Gulak? CM Pu....
Yep, who knows! Samoa Joe being able to wrestle might even be one of the few things that could lure CM Punk back inside the squared circle. You never know..
A hungry, determined Samoa Joe is something to behold, and something tells me Joe is damn hungry. He's not just a young kid anymore, he's someone who has a family to feed. There's a whole lot of awesome coming in 2015, courtesy of Samoa Joe. It might be time for me to book some flights. Hey Ish, pick up your damn phone!
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com. He still regrets not being there when Joe, Daniels and Styles wrestled at TNA No Surrender...and so should you.
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