Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[ClassicsGuy]

The Angle stuff seems iffy to me. By all accounts he's turned his life around.

What accounts are they? It's been less than a year since he was in rehab with another DUI arrest and he's just had a pretty major knee surgery, which is a total landmine for someone who is widely rumoured to have had problems with painkillers over the years. Fair enough if there have been reports of Angle being a new person, but I haven't personally seen any.

 

He's done some media interview with the likes of Jim Ross where he came across well, he wrote a very good column for Fighting Spirit Magazine where he was very open about his previous problems, and there's been zero stories about him at all since last year, until now - which may be nothing. Plenty of people sleep on planes, plus why would WWE employees publicly bad mouth someone like that?

 

Just strikes me as a silly story without any foundation.

 

If he'd been arrested, or perhaps popped for another DUI, that would be another thing entirely.

[Vamp]

Joe's a strange one really. He's a missed opportunity but I'm also glad he didn't get the Umaga gig, if it's true that he was meant to, because I think what we got was perfect (if sadly too short). It's a shame that another chance never manifested itself.

 

There's a bit of a golden generation of guys missed there. Joe, AJ, Roode are all guys you'd figure could have become big stars in the WWE but we'll never know if they would have done.

[PowerButchi]

Joe would have been a shite Umaga IMHO. Umaga was a 400lb monster. Joe working like Umaga at six foot little at 275 wouldn't have worked.

[KingofSports]

I did read that it was a culture thing, where Samoan have huge portions and use dinner as a way of spending time with each other. Kinda like having a full Sunday roast dinner every night. Origninally they would eat lots fish and fruits but with the introduction of more meat from western culture it is very easy for them to put weight on

Sounds like you did a dissertation on it at uni.

 

I saw something on TV a while back. Samoans sitting down for family a meal - essentially just shit loads of fatty, red meat. Joe's svelte by comparison, but looks like he'd blow-up pretty quick these days. Given another few years and assuming he keeps the towel, he'll look like fat, near death Elvis circa 1976.

Edited July 7, 2014 by KingofSports

[PowerButchi]

Shinya Hashimoto's already done the dying Elvis gimmick. To a T.

[UK Kat Von D]

I did read that it was a culture thing, where Samoan have huge portions and use dinner as a way of spending time with each other. Kinda like having a full Sunday roast dinner every night. Origninally they would eat lots fish and fruits but with the introduction of more meat from western culture it is very easy for them to put weight on

Sounds like you did a dissertation on it at uni.

The dissertation was actually about the ethics of giving married women foot massages.

[Vamp]

Joe would have been a shite Umaga IMHO. Umaga was a 400lb monster. Joe working like Umaga at six foot little at 275 wouldn't have worked.

 

Yeah you're probably right on that.

[Carbomb]

I did read that it was a culture thing, where Samoan have huge portions and use dinner as a way of spending time with each other. Kinda like having a full Sunday roast dinner every night. Origninally they would eat lots fish and fruits but with the introduction of more meat from western culture it is very easy for them to put weight on

Sounds like you did a dissertation on it at uni.

The dissertation was actually about the ethics of giving married women foot massages.

Mine was on the cultural norms behind differentiations between Europe and the US in fast food nomenclature. I lost marks for missing out Burger King.

[gadge]

I love Samoa Joe and would love to see him get a run in WWE, but surely his time has come and gone? He's 35 and those knees have been dodgy for years. Would love to see him on NXT tearing it up, though. He's an odd case. Always has been. Austin and Foley think he's dynamite and everyone on the roster worshipped him at one point when he was the king in 2005. Punk obviously surpassed him by a large margine, but in 2005 Joe was like the man. My Dad thought he was the business when he was killing guys on Impact. If he turned up with Heyman by his side and murdered Roman Reigns, that program would be mental for me.

 

That's if the old Joe is stil in there of course. He has the odd match which suggests he's just unmotivated and goes through the motions. If 2005/06 Joe is still around, he'd be amazing I reckon. They just signed Kevin Steen for fucks sake. And KENTA isnt much younger than Joe. Stranger things have happened.

 

EDIT: Just looking on the NXT roster page. There's some wanker with a rat face in that shit Road Warrior team who's 34. If he's still fucking about in developmental, surely Joe's not much of a problem to sign.

 

Having stood in close proximity to both, that would take some selling, as six feet would be exaggerating Joe's height, while Reigns is massive and ripped.

[ColinBollocks]

Joe is an odd case. In 2005 he seemed to have somehow turned himself into a big(ish) star without WWE. I'll never forget the time I was playing that half finished TNA game one morning and my wee brother and his pal come wondering in. I was playing as Joe v Kurt Angle or something and my brothers mate (who apparently wasn't a huge wrestling fan) said with surprise "Is that Samoa Joe? I didn't know he was in the WWF". My wee brother then started laughing about how he looked, only for his pal to point out what a hard case he supposedly was. Even in 2005-6, when I had moved on from wrestling, I knew who Samoa Joe was. Some guys at Uni would bring his name up with such awe that you really thought he must be something special. Having re-visited his prime years, he clearly was.

 

Of course, Vince Russo got the pen and Joe got fatter, which pretty much killed all his good work. Still, whenever TNA are in front of proper fans they treat him like a star.

 

A tanned, slimmer and motivated Joe would be fun to watch in WWE. Like others have stated, some of the big boys seem to really rate him.

[tiger_rick]

A tanned

A what?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Having stood in close proximity to both, that would take some selling, as six feet would be exaggerating Joe's height, while Reigns is massive and ripped.

Joe is Taz though. At his best, he carries himself like a beast. Scott Steiner's not that big. He's around 6'0". If you are billed as a killer and carry yourself like one, its an easy sell.

[ColinBollocks]

A tanned

A what?

[gold76]

I still love the angle where Joe was abducted by goons..

 

That went absolutely no where and he must have escaped and it was never mentioned again.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

TNA's taking a lot of shit for this.

 

Both for the shite Cena parody and just how horrendous the graphics look. I mean bloody hell?