By Mike Johnson

As a form of entertainment, professional wrestling has taken a chair shot to the face since the days when The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin spearheaded the industry to unprecedented success in the ratings and the consistent packing of arenas. Steroid scandals, premature deaths, and other horrible stories outside the ring have soured a formerly built-in audience and left the wrestling industry with about as much repair work to do as Kenny Rogers’ plastic surgeon. Fortunately for wrestlers and wrestling fans, these things tend to be cyclical, and much like baseball and hockey after player strikes, salvation is achievable with the right marketing scheme and an exciting blend of stars. And ratings, by the way, are up so people do still watch sports entertainment – just not me.

TNA (Total Nonstop Action) wrestling is one of the companies striving back towards the wrestling peak, and Samoa Joe is perhaps the company’s brightest star. Jewish Johnson was able to catch up with Samoa Joe a couple nights before a main event pay per view showdown with former Olympic medalist Kurt Angle on TNA: Lockdown, and Joe was switched on from word one.

In the days leading up to the match, Angle had been pushing for a rule change in his match with Joe. Perhaps hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning popularity of mixed martial arts, Angle suggested more of a no holds barred format to the match. Angle was the reigning champ, clearly a little bit nervous about losing the belt, and was making desperate attempts to bend the rules. Joe’s response frames quite nicely why being a professional wrestler is a fantastic job. “…. Hopefully TNA officials see the light and realize it’s not necessary, but if they don’t I’ll be more than happy to smack his face in with any style of his choosing.” Hey boss, I hear you’d like me to do this spreadsheet in Microsoft excel but I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m actually just gonna spit on a piece of cardboard, hand it to you, and you’ll like it.

I certainly didn’t realize the grind that wrestlers go through to reach stardom. All we see on TV is the pay per views and the weekly shows but the road work is constant and grueling. I asked Joe about worst pain he’s ever been in mid match in a situation where he had to continue and his answer made thankful I work at a desk. “Broken ribs. It’s miserable during, it’s miserable after, and the recovery time is terrible. It’s never a fun thing. You can’t stand up, you can’t sit down, you cant breathe, you cant not breathe. You lose any way you look at it.” For his troubles, one would hope that Joe has a little bit of financial security but he’s in the middle of a much publicized contract dispute with TNA. Despite the uncertainty with his future, he promises his fans when they come to see him wrestle they’ll get their money’s worth. “The bottom line is that even though I’m in a contract situation that’s still me out there. That’s still my work and I take a tremendous amount of pride in my work. Regardless of what is going on behind the scenes, when I walk to that ring none of it matters. I take pride in what I do and I wouldn’t put my name on a piece of art that was a piece of shit and the same goes for a match.” Subtle.

Joe set a record while at Ring of Honor wrestling when he held the championship belt for 21 months, but the prospect of rising to the top of TNA had him excited and speaking with authority. “It’s my opportunity to show the world that we can make a Samoa Joe championship run work in a major national company. It’s an opportunity to get out there and show people what I got.”

I now channel my inner Zach Morris at the end of the homecoming episode when “you probably want to know what happened in the game…”

Well, Samoa Joe hit a superkick on Angle, planted him on the ropes and hit the “Muscle Buster” for the win! Joe’s the new TNA wrestling champion and I hope his reign is long and prosperous. Where else can you get yesterday’s results now?