WrestlingFigs > Wrestling News Posts > INTERVIEW RECAP OF SAMOA JOE’s INTERVIEW ON BETWEEN THE ROPES
INTERVIEW RECAP OF SAMOA JOE’s INTERVIEW ON BETWEEN THE ROPES
  • 11/10/2005 (3:02:55 pm)
  • Chris Murray

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Recap of Samoa Joe's interview on last night's edition of Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team.
 
Between The Ropes
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team
Simulcast online at BetweenTheRopes.com
 
On Wednesday night, November 9, TNA sensation Samoa Joe joined hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci on Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team to discuss his rapidly ascending career, his classic encounter with Kenta Kobashi in Ring Of Honor, working for TNA in the X Division, and his appearances for Full Impact Pro Wrestling this Friday and Saturday in Inverness and Brooksville, Florida.
 
The guys started off with talk of his TNA tenure. He said he's enjoying it tremendously and thinks they're putting on some good wrestling and the fans are enjoying it.
 
Joe's career started out in Southern California for a small company called UIW and moved on to work as a trainer in UPW when it was a WWE developmental territory. He hooked up with Zero One and worked and trained in Japan with them. He came back to the States to catch on with Ring Of Honor and his work there for two years led to his spot with TNA. He's been in the business for approximately six years now.
 
Joe said his in-ring 'strong style' is heavily influenced by his training in the Japanese style of pro wrestling, which he believes is an adaptation of an older form of American wrestling. It's a rougher and much more physical style than modern American pro wrestling, but it's basic enough that fans can easily understand.
 
When asked about why he chose TNA over WWE when the time came, he said his work in UPW when it was affiliated with WWE helped him make the decision. With guys like John Cena there at the time, Joe knew what WWE wanted in a wrestler and didn't feel his attributes fit their mold. Joe looked in the mirror and realized he possessed none of the qualities they wanted. When the time came, he felt TNA was a better opportunity for him. TNA was genuinely excited to bring him in whereas he felt WWE might have been a situation of them paying him just to sit down and not work for TNA. He didn't see that he could add anything to WWE and felt it would have been a waste of their money and his time.
 
As part of his early training, Joe said he did a lot of lucha drills since lucha libre was popular in Southern California and there were mostly smaller guys to train with. It helped prepare him to learn to work with smaller, quicker wrestlers and provided him with the versatility that has made him such as strong in-ring worker now. It wasn't until later on that wrestle more with bigger heavyweights.
 
When Mick Foley's constant praise for him was brought up, Joe expressed extreme gratitude for all of Foley's support. "I talked to Mick last night and called him up and thanked him for all of the accolades and for the praise and stuff. Mick's a really great guy. Mick has a genuine love for the wrestling business and when he sees somebody who genuinely loves the business and wants to do better by the business as a whole as far the bigger picture goes, he's a very adamant supporter of that person. Mick's been a great friend and you really can't ask for a higher recommendation than from a guy like him."
 
Joe recently met Bill Watts recently in Chicago, who came up to him and offered some nice words. Jim Cornette has also been a strong supporter and offered him tips and advice along the way. He considers it extremely flattering to receive praise from such great wrestling minds.
 
The guys brought up some of Joe's recent critically acclaimed matches. When asked about the three-way with Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles at TNA Unbreakable, he said he's known both guys since he started training. He's wrestled them many times and everything clicked on that night. He said they really wanted to deliver that night since TNA gave them the ball as the main event match on the show. As for the bout with Kenta Kobashi in Ring Of Honor, he said he remembered watching a tape of Kobashi vs. Misawa from Budokan Hall when he was just starting out and thought it was so cool and never thought he'd have an opportunity to be in there with him. When he walked through the curtain, the realization set in that he was in there with a legend he watched on tape years ago.
 
After working with Japanese icons such as Kobashi and Jushin Liger, Joe said he'd love to wrestle Genichiro Tenryu at some point. He'd love to wrestle some of the WWE guys, such as Chris Benoit and especially Kurt Angle, who he is a huge fan of. He's keep an "open door policy" in terms of who he wrestles down the road.
 
He talked a little bit about his Samoan heritage and mentioned the Samoan dance he performed at Bound For Glory, which TNA asked him to do as a special item for the show and he had his brother up there with him.
 
Joe think it's inevitable that he'll work outside of the X Division in TNA. He doesn't know how soon, but the focus now is on bringing a different element to the X Division. As for the current X Division guys, Joe said he's a big fan of Chris Sabin and would love to work more with him. He expects to be in there more AJ Styles and Chris Daniels in the near future and that there will be a clearer storyline determination of who he likes and who he doesn't like in the X Division.
 
"The Samoan Submission Machine" Samoa Joe will be in action on TNA Genesis as part of Elimination X this Sunday night on pay-per-view from Universal Orlando. Joe will team with Christopher Daniels, Roderick Strong, and Alex Shelley against Chris Sabin, Matt Bentley, Sonjay Dutt, and Austin Aries in an elimination tag-team match.
 
Samoa Joe will also be in action for Full Impact Pro Wrestling this Friday night, November 11 at the Citrus County Fairgrounds in Inverness, Florida and this Saturday night, November 12 in Brooksville, Florida at the Hernando County Fairgrounds. Other talent on the shows include Bryan Danielson, FIP Tag-Team Champions The Heartbreak Express, Roderick Strong, Fast & Furious, Jimmy Rave, Adam Pearce, Sal Rinauro, and Tony Mamaluke. Tickets for both shows are $15 with kids 13 and under admitted for free with a paid adult. Belltime is 8:00pm on both nights with doors opening at 7:30pm. For more information, visit http://www.fullimpactpro.com.
 
To listen to the Samoa Joe interview and the entire November 9 edition of Between The Ropes in streaming audio, visit the show online at http://www.BetweenTheRopes.com. Join us for Between The Ropes for two hours every Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team and worldwide on BetweenTheRopes.com.
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