What's up with Joe?

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

I think his first months have completely been phoned in. He had a great debut, takes out Rollins then beats Reigns. And then, he just gets lost.

The whole Rollins thing, made them change plans. He start a mini feud with Zayn that literally lead nowhere. It just ended. Just like that. Then he gets involved with Owens for some reason. It seems that a stable between HHH, Owens and Joe is coming. But wait, nooo. It doesn't. That suddently is off the table. Then for some reason he's not involved at Wrestlemania.

And now he continues a feud with Rollins, that quite frankly, has no reason to be continued, since Rollins defeated the big boss at WM. And of course Joe will lose that feud, he already has two losses, I think. He might pick up a win somewhere down the line, maybe at Extreme Rules. But he definately doesn't look a destryer anymore and most definately the crowd isn't behind him the way everyone thought they would be.

So, where did it go wrong? And how do you continue going forward?

To be frank, RAW suffers. There aren't many choices. Lesnar is out, Strowman is out. You have Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose and Balor as your faces, with Joe, Wyatt, Miz, Strowman your heels. I don't want to sound bad, but knowing that Lesnar will be champ for a long time and will no show many events, we quite know from every feud RAW will give us the next months. 4 faces, 4 heels and they will just switch each time a feud ends.

I hope I'm wrong and they shuffle the deck a little bit. Do a double turn or something.

But anyways, back on Joe. Samoa Joe has failed to make an impact, for me. KO, Balor, Zayn, Styles. All made big impact on their first months. They had memorable moments, matches and feuds. Right now, Joe hasn't done anything after what he did, 3 months ago to Rollins. He seems like another Rusev and we all know that he's better than that.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I think the big problem with Joe was being attach to HHH when he started, Fans wanted to see the bad ass character that they knew from NXT and got HHH's lackey instead.

Plus you have to figure in the fact that you have a larger audience on the main roster and not everybody knows who Samoa Joe is so you need to make his introduction means something right off the bat and the fact that the first move he made was injured Seth rollins wasn'T a great first impression because now, instead of having him feud with rollins leading into mania, you have him feud with zayn which no offense to zayn but he pretty much a jobber to the stars right now and fans see being stuck in a feud with him as a demotion for a guy like joe.

Having him being link to HHH was the biggest mistake they made, he should have just been a tough guy that wanted to take out Rollins. Now he's just another guy on the roster and it shows every week when he really doesn't get a great reactions at all. Out of all the indy guys that they have on the main roster right now, he's the less over of the group and that's sad when you think how good Joe is.

Personally what i would love to see his Joe getting taken out by somebody, maybe rollins, then take a few months off and get repackage maybe even have him change brand somehow. I think that would help him get some of the crowd back.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I've said this a thousand times, but I'll say it again - booking.

Joe debuts as HHH's bodyguard and is part of a new stable also involving Owens.

Okay that's awesome, but then HHH leaves and Owens is traded to SD.

So what does Joe do now?

Well I don't know and it's pretty clear WWE doesn't either.

And this doesn't just apply to Joe. It's seems like they don't know what to do with anyone.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

He's not that talented. He comes out strong when you first look at him but he's not that talented unless he is getting booked incredibly strong. I give him credit. He cut some decent promos during his time on the main roster but unless something changes significantly, he is going to be the same caliber of guy he was in GMA.

Just watch some of his matches and tell me how long you can really pay attention.

 

[Papa Pillman]

Just watch some of his matches and tell me how long you can really pay attention.

Maybe its a style thing that's not for everyone, but as someone who has seen Joe wrestle live seven or eight times, and seen(conservative estimate) about 250 of his matches, I've never had any issues paying attention, he has always consistently found a way to keep me drawn in. Is being bored by, or losing interest in, Samoa Joe matches really a common problem that other people have, and I'm just too far in the woods to see it?

 

[The Perfect Max]

Personally I wouldn't have had Samoa Joe debut in the lead up to WrestleMania. What did it actually achieve? Anyone could have taken Seth out for Triple H so the answer to that is nothing, especially since nobody seems to care about it anymore. He was too big of an expected arrival for fans, to throw him into the mix of an anticipated feud with such a backstory. To me, it just didn't fit. This is partly why I really wasn't bothered about him debuting in the Royal Rumble because he didn't fit anywhere for Mania.

What I would have done was debut him the night after WrestleMania by attacking, you got it, Seth Rollins. This is better because Rollins has just beaten Triple H and that's a big deal. Samoa Joe debuting and attacking the person that has beaten Triple H instantly makes him a big deal to fans that don't know him, and while I suppose that was sort of achieved in February or whenever it was, we knew the pay off was with Triple H and not Joe. Here, it would be with Joe. If you wanna keep the destroyer thing, that's okay. After all, he could still call Triple H the creator, and just play on the idea that he is better than his creator and will take Rollins out. You move on from there. To me that would have been a much more logical story and it would avoid Samoa Joe looking absolutely pointless by not even appearing at WrestleMania despite the fact there was an unsanctioned match, but okay. And this is obviously just fantasy booking right here but it is surely better than what Joe has been given in reality? It's nothing ground breaking but it avoids Joe getting lost.

Now the reality is that absolutely nobody seems to care about Joe, even though a lot of people are behind Rollins, and so that makes things worse for Joe when he can't beat Rollins on pay-per-view. It's confusing booking and that sums a lot of Raw up at times. How do you fix this? I have no idea, but plenty of guys seem to get into this rut and WWE figures it out. Then again, Joe was a massive name for some fans who are naturally going to be so disappointed, and if you couple that with casual fans who haven't really been given that many reasons to care about him, it's going to be a struggle to change that. Especially, as some have pointed out, that his style is definitely particular.

For me, it's definitely a shame. But the machine keeps rolling and perhaps something is coming that will change things up for Samoa Joe.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Triple H wasn't going to allow Joe to show up in his Mania match, that would take the focus off him. Nor would he allow Rollins to lose to him a month after he defeated him.

Joe will win at Extreme Rules but probably the final match of the feud. It won't do him any hard. Then he'll likely move onto something with somebody like Ambrose. He'll be fine, they're not rushing with him.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Just one of the many guys that is kinda lost in shuffle. With Rollins who has actually waited and finally got HHH and Balor returned from injury, Joe was kinda "sacrificed" as collateral there. In process you cant build them all equally so Joe "suffers" for now. Nothing few wins cant fix.

 

[Spencesc11]

He should've debuted on Smackdown
Beat Cena at Wrestlemania
And now be feuding with Orton for the WWE Title

Smackdown top stars should be Styles, Orton, Wyatt, & Joe

Wyatt & Owens should've stayed put.

 

[Avalanche™]

the Rollins Injury set him back two months. they were probably supposed to feud until Rollins vs Triple H at Mania.

i expect him to get his footing around Summerslam

 

[thebarber]

Hes been booked terribly, left off of Wrestlemania all together didn't help. He should be destroying guys, not having 50-50 competitive matches. HHH, where is he? No explanation given since he left after Mania. WWE booking aimed at kids with short attention spans it seems. Making no sense

 

[ShinChan]

Can't blame Joe here. The timing of debut and Seth Rollins getting injured. And then no match at Wrestlemania. And then after this feud with Seth Rollins continues.

He's a talented wrestler, be it in the ring or on the mic. What he needs is a badass booking just like that made him an awesome heel in NXT.

I'm still hoping for him to feud against Dean Ambrose.

 

[JoeMallard]

Can't blame Joe here. The timing of debut and Seth Rollins getting injured. And then no match at Wrestlemania. And then after this feud with Seth Rollins continues.

He's a talented wrestler, be it in the ring or on the mic. What he needs is a badass booking just like that made him an awesome heel in NXT.

I'm still hoping for him to feud against Dean Ambrose.

Maybe that will make Ambrose not look like a complete joke anymore, because his lame jokes won't work on a monster the way Joe should be.

 

[ShinChan]

Maybe that will make Ambrose not look like a complete joke anymore, because his lame jokes won't work on a monster the way Joe should be.

Ambrose is a complete joke now? I'll help you with this one. His booking is a complete joke now. Don't blame something on a wrestler when he can't do anything about his booking. The guy was on the pre-show of Wrestlemania and then not even on the card of next PPV. That does tell you something, right?