So this one hilarious he gets talked about all the time, but I do understand why.

And let's get in our time travel and go back to 2009. TNA had the opportunity to turn Samoa Joe into a big star because he had all the tools. And what did they decide to do instead? They had him kidnapped by ninjas. Look at my face. I'm not creasing up here. This is true. This would have been fine if he had returned to TV and that would have been Samojo's story. But nope, it took a couple of months.

When he was back to TV and that would have been Samo Joe's story. But nope, it took a couple of months when he was back on an

impact and do you know what total non-stop action said about these ninjas? Nothing. Nada, zero. It

was never mentioned again. Now it all begins with the main event Mafia that had the likes of

Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash and Sting and Scott Steiner. And that's right, Sting was a heel in this period, but actually did make sense. He had been a part of the furniture at TNA for so many years. You had to do something different with him. So we took these stars from yesterday and we put them into a faction. Now, of course, you need a hero to rally back against these bad guys. So who did we choose because it was the right choice? It was none other than the Samojo. Bear with me. Now, just right underline, a brand new Samojo was coming

to stop these idiots. He had a lot of the line. guy so who did we choose because it was the right choice. It was none other than Samojo.

Bear with me. Now, just right underline a brand new Samojo was coming to stop these idiots. He had a brand new haircut and face paint. And Scott Steiner was not impressed with that at all. In fact, the first time he saw it, he cut a promo on Samojo and may as well have gone, you're an idiot I don't like you. And why you hide to begin with, I do not know. Now, there is so much during this story that could be filed under worst booking ever,

because at the same time, little Pee E. Williams was really with Scott Steiner. And because Pee Williams was now a mimic of Scott Steiner, they actually had a headdress on a pole match. You can see the image on the screen right now. And I still don't understand that chain mail that Scott Stannert decided to wear on his head.

And he didn't wear it in the match. It was just part of his entrance attire. This like buff his strengths? I don't know. Anyway, Scott would win this when all of a sudden Samojo did turn up again to tell him, you know what? I've got my own group. And it's called the Nation of Violence or the NOV. it's so TNA.

Thiana continued to no-sell this and actually told Joe he was about as intimidating as a hamburger, or actually maybe he said cheeseburger, when we had a segment in the gym, right? Scott Starks did the bench press when Samojo did turn up and he tried to kill him with the barbell. And did we call the cops? Of course we didn't. Apparently this was fair game. Big Pop Palm continued to act like he wasn't bothered and even at one point said something like I can't help me tonight, Book a T, because I have to use the bathroom. When we got yet more crime in this angle, because all of a sudden Samojo found Scott Steiner, he pulled a knife out of his pocket, which is not a euphemism, and he held it to Scott's neck, and yet he threatened to kill him. This came after Scott had threatened to take Samojo to a donut shop because he knew he'd eat himself to death. And to me, that's perfect escalation. If somebody actually does call you fat, you'd try to murder them. Actually, maybe you should watch this. A lot of it is quite funny. Joe continued to do this as well.

He produced that knife over and over again,

and still we didn't call the police.

And instead, because the Destination X-Papy was on the horizon, everybody went, well, you know what? You can settle this in a match. Now, Joe threw the referee out of the ring quite early, meaning this did end in a disqualification. And while the story was, oh my gosh, he just wants to inflict as much pain on Samoa Joe,

it kind of made you go, nope, that was rubbish.

On the following impact too, the word was Scott Steiner didn't show because he was scarred. I don't know whether they meant emotionally or physically, but Samoa Joe didn't care because he was still a wound-up, absolutely maniacal fooling with the other members of the main event mafia, because I guess guilty by association, went from nowhere one day.

He helped Kurt Angle win the TNA World Championship, and yep, he joined the group. And if you'd like an explanation, I can't give you one, I guess he just went, this is too damn half to try and take him down. Why don't I sign up instead? Now, this should have sent Samoa Joe into the stratosphere, and if TNA had done that, I never would have made a complaint about it.

But, of course, this was Vince Rousseau booking, so we had to have a surprising swerve. So from nowhere, of all the people to pin Samojo, quite soon after this, it was flipping Orlando Jordan. That's nothing against Orlando Jordan. He was perfectly fine, but he was not being treated as a top guy, and Samo Joe was now meant to be a top guy. Joe told it as well well like he couldn't even find the words that he had been defeated when he decided to drive off into the night when he wasn't able to because the circle back to the start of this video, he got kidnapped by ninjas. Now you may be asking me, Simon, why was it ninjas? I don't know why it was ninjas, but they threw him into a van and they drove off with him as the commentary screamed, oh my gosh, Samojo has been kidnapped by ninjas. But once again, what would ninjas want to do with Samojo? Now, for a while TNA did reference this before they did go quiet, but I actually thought that was totally fine. You can compare it to Kane in 1997. There was a period on WWF TV. It was Kane this and Kane that when just before the Hell the so at bad blood, everybody went quiet about it, because we wanted his debut to be a surprise. If that's what we're going to do with Samojo, perfectly fine, but you already know this, we did the opposite. There are rumours, and they are just rumours, to take them with a pinch of salt, but a couple of the explanations are, one, Vince Russo's plan was to bring Samojo back as a crazy man, so we needed him off TV, but that's kind of weird because he was a knife-wielding maniac already. Two was Vince Russo saying that none of this was his call and it was Eric Bischoff's call, and that at one point the plan was for Superfly Jimmy Snooker and Samo Joe to be a duo. I've got nothing else to tell you, man. I don't even know what that came from. They must have pulled it out of a hat. To give you an idea of dates as well, he vanished in February before he returned in April as a surprise member of Team Hogan. And yes, message boards were a flood with questions of why hasn't he been kidnapped by ninjas? And TNA just went, we don't want to tell you, so kiss our ass. Kiss, yes, Team Hogan were facing Team Flares, it wasn't the worst position to be in,

but in terms of anything else that was meant to happen, please stop talking about it, shut up, we didn't like what we're going to do, so now we're heading in a different direction. And listen, of course, Samojo made a great name for himself in T&A, But did they ever treat him properly right? I don't think so. It should have been him and AJ Stiles that are tippily top of the tree

They were kind of there, but they were never pushed properly. We're also never going to get an answer to this because there's absolutely no need. Not only was it almost 20 years ago but tNA is owned by a completely different entity and there's not even a real connection between what a j stars and samojo and christopher daniels did because the world has changed, which means if you ever wake up in a Colton, thinking about this, you better get over it fast.

So also why TNA was so damn infuriating back in the day because they could be on the cusp of something good and they would never follow up. Again, use your way back machine and search TN in 2009 and at the very least you are going to awful lot because a lot of it is stupid. Now, Samoa Joe definitely wasn't happy about this because you can again source a bunch of interviews

he did do today, but I wouldn't bother trying to find the ones with Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff because it's like all of their conversations. Vince Rousseau blames Eric Bischoff like we talked about. So Eric Bischoff blames Vince Rousseau and this is why it all fell apart. I don't know why they decided to do this and I don't know, just to double back down what we were just talking about, why they didn't put fresh talent. I mean, when Eric Bishop and Hulk Hogan did walk through the door, it became TNA Friend Central again. But you had Samoa Joes, you had AJ Stiles, you had Christopher Daniels, and you had so many people, you had Abyss, who were so damn law to TNA, may he even turned a WrestleMania spot down with The Undertaker, or so is the word on the street.

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