At Joe's Request: Okato the Sidekick

[It's Damn Real!]

PWTorch is reporting that Kazuchika Okada's "Okato" character we're seeing right now (obvious inspiration/rip-off from "The Green Hornet" series) was actually pitched by Samoa Joe to TNA creative, as he likes the idea of him being his sidekick.

Okada signed with TNA a year ago and spent most of his first 6 months with the company jobbing in dark matches before moving on to tag-team briefly with Kiyoshi for a few bouts on Xplosion.

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Thoughts on Okad—err, Okato and where this "sidekick" thing could take him? Granted the guy doens't need to be World Champion to be a success, but is the angle too corny to work, or will it actually help him and/or Joe? Why or why not?

 

[Olan]

I have never se Okado in the ring so I have no idea about his abilities. But I am not saure how this is going to work. Joe's character is built on being a loner so not sure how him having a partner fits into that image

 

[neildittmar]

The last 6 months or so of Samoa Joe's tenure in TNA has really bothered me lately.

I wholeheartedly appreciated the fact that Joe's character isn't a stereotypical, hard-headed savage. Nowadays though, I almost wish he would become somewhat one-dimensional, as his "personality" of late just doesn't seem that befitting. Above all else, Joe ultimately strikes me as a killer. No, not of unintelligible, bones through the nose Umaga like proportions. More like an arrive, destroy, leave type of guy. His size suggests it, and his arsenal of moves almost begs for it. He was being booked this way as recent as last summer/fall. I thought it was working... the audience seemed to respond well.

I'm all for fleshing out a character and using other minor players to put a personality over. But this? Joe is now a snoop? He has hired a cameraman to expose Pope for the fraudulent, corrupt person that he truly is? He cares what the fans in the iMPACT zone think about his fellow wrestlers? I'm just not buying it. Why is Joe even bothering? What does he care... he's a "killer." And now the subourdinate is getting a "green hornet" gimmick before Joe's new persona is fleshed out or dropped outright? The whole thing just seems, for lack of a better word, weird... like there is no long-term thought process behind it.

I know that is one of TNA's primary criticisms that detractors like to throw around, but this time I have to agree. Joe being the "good guy" who will go to great lengths to expose the misdoings of others is a weird persona for him. I'd see this gimmick going better with someone like EY or even Orlando Jordan with a certain voyeuristic slant. Having Okato play cameraman/sidekick to all this makes the whole thing even stranger. Maybe the end-game to all this is to have Joe lose his mind, adding a level of "instability" to the aforementioned arrive, destroy, leave character. Right now, that's the only outcome that appears to make any sense to me.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=152267

This might be the furthest thing from the truth but klunderbunker posted a thread asking if creative were expecting too much of their fans, in that this mysterious unknown guy turned up on consecutive iMPACTs as Joe's cameraman and then his back up. Mike Tenay was that casual in his introduction that the impression was that we should just know him. Unfortunately, unless people have access to Explosion - nobody had or has a clue who he was/ is.

Now there is two ways to look at this: 1) This was deliberate and Okato is deliberately meant to be mysterious; OR 2) Joe or someone in TNA creative is involved with our lil' community and has embraced KB's criticism to attempt to make some sense. The romantic in me would love to think that KB has influenced a storyline.

No matter what way this storyline has come to light though, I'm not a fan. As previously mentioned Joe has always been a loner, a monster, he doesn't care about anyone. In his own way, Joe was almost a Stone Cold character - if he came down to make a save, he'd be just as likely to kick the ass of the victim as his intended target. Respect? Kiss his Samoan ass, he'll make you bleed then carry a towel around with your blood to remind you that your his bitch.

Now he has an ethnic sidekick? Are we about to get Hornet/ Kato schtick for a while and then possibly a Clouseau/ Cato follow up? Even if the obvious comedy storylines are avoided, the simple fact is that face Joe is taking on lone heel Pope and appears to need an accomplice! Surely creative 101 states that the good guys shouldn't outnumber the bad guys?

 

[Dean Winchester]

Why don't they turn this into a comedy storyline. They mind aswell I mean Samoa Joe not doing anything right now besides this feud with Pope and its not interesting one bit so far so turn this whole angle into a comedy one. If its like Booker T and Goldust it will be awesome to watch everyweek. I saw make Samoa Joe like The Green Hornet since his side kick like Kato. I mean Joe is boring right now as a character, spicing him up won't hurt. They did this with Kane in 2002 making him into a light hearted guy and he was still awesome to watch.

 

[waylon p]

What if the story is used to the comedic effect, but Joe is the straight man?

It would be a simple matter for pope to hire some thuggish "acolytes" to give him the numbers edge, and Joe can be foiled time and time again by okato not following the plan.

By the time Joe gets fed up, maybe there aren't many acolytes left, but then okato can join pope after Joe tosses okato to the curb.

 

[theundisputedY2D2]

Joe's credibility has been shot to pieces anyway so in the grand scheme of things it won't make a blind bit of difference if he has a sidekick or becomes a cross dresser or paints a giant penis on his face.

I'm a bit surprised that it was Joe himself who suggested it, maybe he's a Green Hornet fan, or he wants to help out Okada but whatever the reason you'd think Joe would have a better handle on his character/gimmick and know that the last thing he needs is a sidekick.

Anyway, 2 months from now the whole thing will probably be dropped and Joe will go back to being a 'killer' for like a week, then he'll join a faction, turn on it to join another faction, get into an ownership issue with Dixie Clueless before claiming that he's the actual father of Kurt Angle's kids leading to a feud between the two.

 

[Post]

I cringed when I read about this. It was reported that this was Joe's idea. Hasn't he noticed that The Green Hornet didn't really do all that great in the theaters?

This has disaster written all over it, unless it is given a comedy angle similar to Hurricane Helms. How are we supposed to take Joe seriously?

 

[Calderownz]

Honestly, I think the idea is quite stupid. I don't really understand the spoof aspect of it. He's an Asian guy in a mask. Okay.... Why the fuck is he hanging out with a fat Samoan?

Just just doesn't make sense to me. Make him a sidekick. No sense in making him a rip off of The Green Hornet.

Pretty stupid to me, personally.

Doesn't help either as it's a comedy role for a guy that will be branded with this for a while and being the sidekick to a guy who's tag line is "I'm gonna kill you." I assume it will now be, "I'm going to kill you.... with my masked friend, here."

 

[Rayne]

Attention, TNA Creative:

You have been at your jobs for many, many years, and while you have all have accomplishments in your careers, I believe you have forgotten what made you successful in the first place. To recap the list would take too much time- and to recap what makes someone a successful professional level writer would probably qualify people with credit towards a BofArts. But here's a major point- ripping off of pop culture only works when you're ripping off popular pop culture. Robbie E. worked (for a few months), because everyone had heard of Jersey Shore and the show preached 'values' diametrically opposite to the 'values' held by professional wrestling fans. This Green Hornet deal will not, because no one cared about the movie while it was in theaters. It is a character born to fail, and whoever greenlighted this idea should be shitcanned, because it's obvious they simply don't care anymore.

Worse yet, they're attaching this character to a guy who has absolutely zero momentum right now. Normally, if you give a guy a sidekick, the idea is that you attach the sidekick to a wrestler who's on the way up so that he can drag the sidekick along with him. Samoa Joe is stuck in neutral, has been all year, and let's be honest with ourselves- he's not getting a major push anytime soon in this writing regime. I don't think TNA creative has a use for Joe, but he's under contract.

It's the kind of booking you expect from TNA these days, however; slap it together, tell people it's great, and count on the people who just hate WWE to push it forward.

 

[IceMalenko]

Well, Immortal was formed behind closed doors (see also: no one saw it coming, other than Abyss) so I can understand Joe wanting to be sure everyone's story checks out. Tired of being lied to, and whatnot.

On the other hand, I made that s*** up myself. Nothing's really been spelled out for fans on TV or even hinted at, other than, "Dude asked me for money, I wanted to be sure it was legit".

The whole thing just falls flat for me.