Get The E Out Retrospective - Samoa Joe TNA's Very Own Star Posted by Matt Green
on 04/22/2007
(THE FOLLOWING COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN JULY 2006 - EVERYTHING IN BOLD WAS WRITTEN IN RETROSPECT))
The following column was written in early July 2006 after having watched Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner from TNA Slammiversary. It details the sterling job TNA had done with Joe up until that specific point and how I would have handled Joe in the following months.
The year is 2006. A company called Total Non Stop Action has been falsely advertising wrestling shows for four years and airing some of the most nonsensical wrestling the world has ever seen. Perhaps that first sentence would lead you to believe that the TNA booking committee is totally incompetent. Well for the 900 fans in Soundstage 21, there have been rumblings of a growing presence in the TNA ranks. Now this is not the discontent of Jeff Jarrett's latest title reign. In the words of Scott Steiner, the rumblings have been heard because of a fat, half-breed. In the mind of Dave Meltzer, the rumblings are from a 5 star wrestler. The rumblings are because of one Samoa Joe~!
Just over one year ago at TNA's answer to WrestleMania (Slammiversary), Samoa Joe debuted to huge fanfare. For much of the past three years, Joe had set alight many a ROH fan's world. Since his debut in October 2002, he had wrestled the likes of Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, and, to huge acclaim, CM Punk. Joe even received the privilege of getting to wrestle Jushin 'Thunder' Liger in one of his few US appearances. From that summary, the fanfare may seem undeserved to the casual fan. The fanfare was escalated because of Joe's unrivaled twenty month Ring of Honor title reign which made him the favorite of Mick Foley and Ricky Steamboat among others who had a voice in Stamford, Connecticut.
After his twenty month title reign ended abruptly in December 2004, Joe became 'the hottest free agent' on the market. In the coming months, Joe and CM Punk were courted by both WWE and TNA for their signatures after a now 'classic' trilogy of matches. Whilst CM Punk was lured first to Stamford before being shuffled down to Louisville, Joe opted to go to Orlando which allowed him to stay in ROH where he had come to worldwide acclaim via the internet. So when Joe walked into Soundstage 21 on June 19th, 2005, this was not to a lukewarm reception often reserved for well known Indy workers on WWE shows. His reception was almost comparable to renowned national stars that TNA had convinced to come along for the ride.
His first night in Joe dispensed somewhat easily of Sonjay Dutt and started what now stands as a year long unpinned winning streak. The match was a critical success amongst anyone who saw it; whilst not reaching the levels of what Joe would accomplish down the road, it was the first step of stardom that TNA had perhaps unknowingly stumbled onto.
With any winning streak, there is an obvious result to not having Joe lose; it would make him the TNA star that TNA had been longing for. Whilst the core main event team had runs in New York and Atlanta during the late 1990's and early 00's, TNA hadn't created someone they could mark as their own. They tried countless times with AJ Styles, but he was always brought back down to earth with needless losses. This has always been TNA's biggest failing in trying to make themselves an alternative. Whilst it is refreshing to see junior heavyweights in key roles, they've never gone through with pushing their X-Division wrestlers seriously against their heavyweights. Whilst Styles got a heavyweight title run as I mentioned previously, he was shot back down to earth with meaningless losses and feuds.
This was not the only thing counting against Styles. He also had his size and look against him, which was the opposite for Joe. AJ Styles, for all his athletic and working ability in this day and age, is a dime a dozen. AJ Styles just happens to be the best of this dime a dozen range. Samoa Joe on the other had is easily recognizable; he's a 265 pound Samoan and just plain and simply looks like a badass. Much like Goldberg in WCW, Joe's size, style, and mobility has been a huge advantage to the committee that has booked him. The reason for Joe's attributes being a huge advantage is partly to a rare stroke of genius of the TNA booking committee placing him in the X-Division. This allowed him to throw around the rag doll-like junior heavyweights and look like he was breaking their bodies with his brutal looking styles.
Having Joe run rampant lead to one of the biggest acclaimed matches in TNA history and even recently wrestling history. When Joe faced off against Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, it was hyped in such a way where it would make Joe the biggest star in the company and never to be promoted as such. Whilst Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles had suffered countless needless losses in their TNA careers, they were seen as huge stars because of their immense athletic ability. Daniels had been the longest reigning X-Division champion ever whilst AJ Styles had held the said title the most times. This is perhaps most vital to the beauty of the match.
These facts to most knowledgeable people mean little. However, to the casual fan they mean a lot. These facts mean that Daniels and Styles are capable of winning the X-Division title and Joe running rampant still isn't set in stone. UFC used a similar tactic in the Matt Hughes/Royce Gracie fight this year where they showed Gracie running wild in the mid 90's when most knowledgeable MMA fans know the sport has progressed and evolved immensely since Gracie was the top dog. However, the promotional tactic created an illusion that Royce Gracie was an equal match for Matt Hughes.
This combination of Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles and/or Chris Daniels proved successful in getting Joe over in the following months. Whilst at times there was discontent at the feud becoming stale or discontent at the quality of the following matches, the fans in Soundstage 21 felt they had a star to get behind, whether face or heel. This wasn't Jeff Jarrett who had been a WWF and WCW wrestler. This wasn't AJ Styles who had been needlessly beaten. This was one badass individual that they could get behind and they knew wouldn't get screwed around, and he was TNA's own.
This was perfect timing what with TNA's debut on Spike and with Joe's rising popularity, they had a brutal powerhouse of a wrestler that was almost a perfect crossover from Spikes big ratings winner, UFC. If placed at the top of the show, Joe could have hooked any UFC fan with his style. Whilst TNA didn't always use this tactic, they did notably with their Thursday night debut on April 13th. The show opened after The Ultimate Fighter with Christopher Daniels flying across the screen into a guardrail from a Samoa Joe strike. The memory for some of you may be a small insignificance move at the time, but the visual for casual TNA fans that are UFC fans was a hook nonetheless.
Another visual which made a huge impact with me personally is the picture below:
The appearance of Scott Steiner these days is the cause for joke amongst many internet fans after his stint of being booked to fail in the WWE; however, just his visual presence and awesome exuberance on the microphone are hooks for the casual fans. Over the past 6 weeks, this has given Joe some badass legitimacy whilst there was no doubt that he could destroy the X-Division. The next step was to bring Joe up to legitimate stars.
Steiner, for his advanced years and physical condition, has been booked brilliantly by TNA. His wrestling appearances have been selected carefully and done well where they are short, sharp, and brutal. Those features have been the staple of Joe squashing X-Division jobbers on iMPACT! over the past year. So the natural progression was to put them in the ring from the first tease, which was the hook for the hardcore fans and had many salivating at the thought of how brutal the match would be.
So when the match finally happened a year from Samoa Joe's debut, it followed a brilliant build up package on the Impact prior to Slammiversary where Steiner came out with some classic phrases such at 'fat little bastard' and 'half breed' amongst others. The hype and tension was such that it was the biggest match in TNA history. Joe had become the unofficial star of TNA. The match was perhaps not the 'classic' that many people were expecting, but for TNA's scale. it was the kind of spectacle that was so successful for WWE with Rock and Hogan at WrestleMania X-8. It wasn't about holds, it wasn't about dives, and it wasn't about titles. It was about the two biggest bad asses in TNA going into the ring and beating the shit out of each other.
Not only was this a spectacle of unrivaled emotion of any TNA match in the history of the promotion, this was also Scott Steiner busting his arse to make Joe look like a star. Now many of you may scoff at that but it's true. Scott Steiner is 44 years old; he has numerous injuries, many of which curtailed his abilities whilst in WWE. All of this didn't stop him being chucked around the ring by the stiffest worker in TNA and making Joe looking unstoppable, having taken a lot of Steiner's signature offence earlier in the match.
All of this added together meant walking out of Slammiversary, Samoa Joe had all but confirmed himself the biggest star in TNA in the eyes of the hardcore viewers of the products. I also think he confirmed himself as that in the eyes of the skeptics of the product as well. However, that is not the end of the road because for the market that TNA wants to cater to, Joe isn't going to make them money there yet. On their scale, they've reached the point with him where WCW reached with Goldberg when he pinned Hulk Hogan for the WCW title. Needless to say for TNA to become competition they need to be on the same scale as WCW. For TNA to reach that level they have a trump card and that is Samoa Joe.
THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
So where to go with Joe now? Well first off his unpinned streak is now more important than ever. It doesn't need to be brought shuddering to a halt in some screw job finish that has Jeff Jarrett retain the world heavyweight title. He needs to be continually booked against guys that are perceived as cream of the crop by the casual fans who watch TNA television but not buying the PPVs and there are plenty of those fans.
For those who don't know, at the Victory Road PPV a 4 way match will take place between Samoa Joe, Scott Steiner, Sting, and Christian Cage. The winner of the match will then go onto face Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Title in the main event of the same PPV. Now this perhaps for many people would be the ideal situation for Joe to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title. In my opinion, this would actually be a poor booking move.
The smartest decision for the NWA Title would be for Sting to take it at Victory Road; people will say that it hurts the title leaving just one month between switches. However with the current level of the title after Christian Cage's dismal title reign, the strength of the champion matters more than the strength of the title reign. The strongest star in TNA with casual fans is Sting, thus for Sting's star to fall to Samoa Joe would cement Joe some creditable mainstream fan base as opposed to just TNA's hardcore populous of fans.
Moving back to Joe himself, Samoa Joe is someone people see as legit so should be cut off before he gets a shot at the title, rather than failing to win the title in a main event title. Samoa Joe should have a considerable run to the title beating a certified star each rung up the ladder. The first rung should be whoever screws him out of the reaching the title match at Victory Road. Preferably the candidate for this, in my opinion, should be Scott Steiner. This opens one an avenue that not only gives us a strong re-match from Slammiversary, but also gives TNA a strong contender for Joe's first title defense.
Assuming Steiner is the person to derail Joe from getting his hands on the title at Victory Road, he then goes on face Joe at Hard Justice in August where he should once again lose via pin fall. The result of which leaves Steiner with a comeback after Bound For Glory where he can continually hammer home the fact that Joe has never choked him out.
Whilst on the same PPV, this gives TNA the opportunity to give Jeff Jarrett a rematch and have 4 weeks of build to properly finish the Sting/Jarrett feud. Whilst some people may say that the feud needs more simmering time, it's become painfully obvious despite the initial Spike in ratings that Sting, whilst a huge star in TNA, isn't capable of being a long term ratings draw. So the feud with Jarrett needs to be punctuated quickly and as it is, the feud length by Hard Justice will be 8 months.
This leaves one PPV for Joe to climb another rung and who better than Jeff Jarrett? Since Christian's run has been a dismal failure and the rest of the TNA crew has been perennially kept on the same level, the only stand out from the field is the 'King of the Mountain.' The match would have to be billed as a number one contender's bout and take precedence on the No Surrender PPV in September.
As with the Scott Steiner match at Slammiversary, Jarrett can't let his ego get in the way of doing a clean job and taken Joe's signature offence. Joe, whether Jarrett likes it or not, is the long term future for TNA if they wish to have such a thing as a long term future. It is also important for Jeff Jarrett to have a decent amount of offence within the match as Steiner had at the last PPV. The reason being these are men that need to be seen to hang with Joe before Joe beat them cleanly. WCW did this well with Goldberg against Bret Hart and DDP in 1998 before killing the character at Starrcade 1998 and nailing it shut with the finger poke of doom.
This gives TNA at least four or possibly five weeks to build Joe for a title match with Sting at Bound for Glory. In those four or five weeks of preparation for potentially the biggest match in company history, it's important to keep Joe out of competition for all but the last week and then have him go through an ultra competitive twenty minute match with Sen Shi, which lays the groundwork for his second title defense.
This is another idea that is scoffed at: why would you keep the challenger out of the ring for three or four weeks and the chuck him against the X-Division champion? Well the answer is simple: Joe, by the time this rolls around, will have a head of steam and will look like a special attraction. So be limiting his appearances on iMPACT!, it will hopefully create a ratings spike, even more so when it's competitive hard hitting matches with amazing athletes who can fly around the ring for Joe's offence and also dish it back some what with incredible strikes in the case of Sen Shi. How does this lay the ground work for Sen Shi getting Joe's second heavyweight title defense on PPV?
The match on iMPACT! would ideally be non-title so Sen Shi's X-Division title isn't on the line. So what with the disputed finish of the X-Division title change and also Joe holding a win over Sen Shi, this can fuel a fire inside of Joe to prove his dominance that he wants the X-Division title back. However, Sen Shi is opposed to this, but slowly becomes more aggravated week after week when the interviewers and commentators lay reference to Sen Shi not holding a clean win over Joe. So once Joe is done dispensing of Steiner at Genesis, Sen Shi can seize the opportunity of attacking a worn down Joe and dismantle him with the X-Division title. This in turn would set up a title vs. title rematch at Turning Point.
The final gaps though: what to do with Joe the weeks he is not on TV leading up to Bound for Glory? This is simple; by this point, Joe will have been in the company twenty months. By which time there will be three distinct periods: Joe's chase to the X-Division title, Joe's dominance or the X-Division, and Joe's run for the World Heavyweight Title. So each week you get Joe to cut a promo that is followed by a video package of highlights of each period. This way you get your star on TV without continually giving his matches away for free. It is also perfect build towards a match with Sting and justifying why Joe is in the position that he is.
The penultimate gap is how to handle Sting during this period; Sting, in contrast, should work each of the television shows in competitive matches except the show where Joe wrestles Sen Shi at which time he should do commentary on Joe's match. Each of the times he works though, the title shouldn't be on the line and he should work competitive squash matches in the structure (but not style) that Sabu has worked on the past two ECW shows. This gives the impression that Sting is in strong form and winning match, but he is human as well. Whilst this may seem foolish to the hardcore TNA viewer or smart fan, it is the sort of tactic, as I mentioned earlier, that had casual MMA fans thinking Royce Gracie could beat Matt Hughes at UFC 61. Thus would have casual TNA fans thinking they must buy the PPV to see who is the stronger power Joe or Sting.
Finally, the title match and switch. It is important to make Sting look as strong as possible from the outset getting in his signature offence. Let's not kid ourselves; Sting, at 47, isn't going to have a classic wrestling match that he was carried to at the age of 29 with Ric Flair. Samoa Joe may be the best that TNA has, but he's not god or the human equivalent Dick 'The Destroyer' Beyer. Much like the Steiner match, it needs to have length, but it doesn't need to go unnecessarily long. They need to get an equal amount of offence going into the finish which needs to be clinically won by Joe.
Like I said at the beginning of the column, the fact is unchallengeable that over the past year TNA has done a brilliant job of building the Samoan Submission Machine as their star. Not a WWE reject and not a legend of another mainstream promotion, but someone who has made their name in a TNA ring. It does not matter to the casual fan that Joe has lost the X-Division Title twice without being pinned. When it comes down to the casual fan, the only fact that needs to be hammered home is that Joe is undefeated. What I have laid out keeps that intact and also gives Joe two strong title defenses after becoming the top man in the promotion whilst also giving credibility back to the X-Division after the inevitable joke that Kevin Nash is going to make of it.
TNA has a lot of faults with their booking philosophy, but if they have a strong draw on their show and in a pivotal position, the job becomes so easy to garnish their product with entertaining periphery angles and feuds. The hill that the company is on is a steep one, but they have something that will make the climb so much easier if they wish to top it and come down the other side.
In retrospect of course things change in the wrestling business, but it’s quite evident that the way Joe has been handled in the subsequent months leaves a lot to be desired. Two major factors in Joe’s descent to being another geek in the pack of TNA midcarders. Firstly is the acquisition of Kurt Angle (who also has seemingly lost any steam he possessed when he debuted in ring.) The second which is all the more depressing yet satisfying is the addition of Vince Russo to the TNA booking staff. When Russo returned I could only see TNA going one way, and my words have been born out and TNA has fallen off a cliff faster than a group of lemmings.
I don’t wish to get into heated Russo bashing and the slide of Joe had started before his return to TNA but the alarming slide has only been accentuated when Russo has been pivotal in all major booking decisions. Since Joe’s loss against Kurt Angle at Genesis in November he has gone from a bonafide drawing card to nothing more than title defence cannon fodder for Christian Cage and more recently to a meaningless cog in a 10 man War Games match up where he wasn’t involved in the decision of the match.
I know lots of TNA fans are passionate to the point of bias in defence of their promotion. Especially against people who analyse the business strategy Panda Energy uses. Looking back I think my comments last year were positive and if not pro TNA were not those of a rabid TNA hater. I for one though fail to fine any positive in the direction Samoa Joe has been taken in the past 9 or 10 months and lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of TNA for making a certified drawing card their promotion nothing more than fodder for their lineage of midcard over-pushed champions.
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