Yes, you read that correctly. I am completely serious. Samoa Joe is the future of professional wrestling. Well, I can't see the future, but he has the potential to be. So why exactly do I consider Samoa Joe the future of professional wrestling? First let's tackle why you shouldn't.
On the whole, Joe's title reign was underwhelming. Some of the TNA hardcore - if any should exist - remained behind him but he was skating on thin ice for most of the year. Surely, if Joe were to show that he was the future of the business he would have used the time he was at the forefront of TNA, right? Wrong. TNA management did not have a clue how to book him, one second deciding he was an uncompromising monster, the next as Kevin Nash's pet. Had TNA booked him right, the reign would likely have been a much bigger success. It, simply put, was not Joe's fault.
Secondly, a lot of people don't like Joe. This is largely because he doesn't conform to their view of what their view of a professional wrestler should be. He's overweight, for example. This has lead to nicknames like Sloppy Joe and Average Joe. These nicknames are completely inaccurate. Joe is not sloppy, he's always precise and his "botch rate" - if I may call it that - is possibly lower than anyone on the TNA roster, and he always keeps his opponents safe, despite his hard-hitting style. He is also not average - even if you think he sucks.
Samoa Joe is original, something which a lot of people hate. These are normally the same people that are concerned with psychology and storytelling, and regularly bash the likes of Dean Malenko and Kurt Angle. Samoa Joe does not lack psychology, nor can he not tell a story. His character is an athlete, like Kurt Angle, someone wholly unconcerned with postering and taunting, a man who wants to win. His style, one that could be described as soft-MMA (or whatever), accompanies this beautifully. The story he tells in the ring is not the dull good vs. evil story we've been told thousands upon thousands of times, but the story of a sporting contest, with no absolutes or strictly set conventions.
Samoa Joe is like only one other professional wrestler on Earth. Together, they perfected their respective styles in an MMA-style match at Lockdown. There was no good man and bad man in this match. There was contestant number one and contestant number two. They still had personalities, but they made what went on in the ring seem real. These men are the two best on the planet at suspending disbelief. WWE wrestlers don't go far enough, pretending as if one kick to the face or a punch to the shoulder is enough to send a grown man writhing around or into the land of nod. Indie wrestlers go too far, having overlong matches that nobody but the most deluded fan wants to watch. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe struck the perfect balance and it was only TNA's own stupidity that stopped them capitalizing on it.
If wrestling is to evolve and become something different to what it was a decade ago - which many "if it ain't broke, just kinda dull, don't fix it" people would not want - then it is with Samoa Joe and his brand of wrestling it will go. As people grow tired of the repetitive "stories" told in WWE rings (which are highly simplistic, yet talked about as if it takes an equation to pull off a staredown) and turn to new forms of similar entertainment, such as MMA, it is with Samoa Joe and those that are willing to take similar steps that professional wrestling will survive and become exciting again.
On the whole, Joe's title reign was underwhelming. Some of the TNA hardcore - if any should exist - remained behind him but he was skating on thin ice for most of the year. Surely, if Joe were to show that he was the future of the business he would have used the time he was at the forefront of TNA, right? Wrong. TNA management did not have a clue how to book him, one second deciding he was an uncompromising monster, the next as Kevin Nash's pet. Had TNA booked him right, the reign would likely have been a much bigger success. It, simply put, was not Joe's fault.
Secondly, a lot of people don't like Joe. This is largely because he doesn't conform to their view of what their view of a professional wrestler should be. He's overweight, for example. This has lead to nicknames like Sloppy Joe and Average Joe. These nicknames are completely inaccurate. Joe is not sloppy, he's always precise and his "botch rate" - if I may call it that - is possibly lower than anyone on the TNA roster, and he always keeps his opponents safe, despite his hard-hitting style. He is also not average - even if you think he sucks.
Samoa Joe is original, something which a lot of people hate. These are normally the same people that are concerned with psychology and storytelling, and regularly bash the likes of Dean Malenko and Kurt Angle. Samoa Joe does not lack psychology, nor can he not tell a story. His character is an athlete, like Kurt Angle, someone wholly unconcerned with postering and taunting, a man who wants to win. His style, one that could be described as soft-MMA (or whatever), accompanies this beautifully. The story he tells in the ring is not the dull good vs. evil story we've been told thousands upon thousands of times, but the story of a sporting contest, with no absolutes or strictly set conventions.
Samoa Joe is like only one other professional wrestler on Earth. Together, they perfected their respective styles in an MMA-style match at Lockdown. There was no good man and bad man in this match. There was contestant number one and contestant number two. They still had personalities, but they made what went on in the ring seem real. These men are the two best on the planet at suspending disbelief. WWE wrestlers don't go far enough, pretending as if one kick to the face or a punch to the shoulder is enough to send a grown man writhing around or into the land of nod. Indie wrestlers go too far, having overlong matches that nobody but the most deluded fan wants to watch. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe struck the perfect balance and it was only TNA's own stupidity that stopped them capitalizing on it.
If wrestling is to evolve and become something different to what it was a decade ago - which many "if it ain't broke, just kinda dull, don't fix it" people would not want - then it is with Samoa Joe and his brand of wrestling it will go. As people grow tired of the repetitive "stories" told in WWE rings (which are highly simplistic, yet talked about as if it takes an equation to pull off a staredown) and turn to new forms of similar entertainment, such as MMA, it is with Samoa Joe and those that are willing to take similar steps that professional wrestling will survive and become exciting again.