TNA’s Monthly Conference Call Report 4.10.08 – Samoa Joe discusses Lockdown, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, MMA in Pro Wrestling and More

We’re welcomed to the conference call and headed into Lockdown this weekend. We get a rundown of the card and the call gets turned over to Samoa Joe.

The questions begin in earnest and they ask about the MMA feel and the stiffness that Kurt Angle is hoping for through the bout at Lockdown. Joe says that he’s a pro-wrestler and he does pro-wrestling. He says that Angle has been lobbying for the rules to be changed and that he’s hoping that TNA officials will not accede to Angle. They ask about the contractual status of Joe and TNA and he says that he’s still at an impasse and that he is close to his end date on his contract. Both sides want the best and because of the busy schedule it’s been hard to get things finalized but he hopes it’s over with soon.

Joe is happy with the direction that the company is going in and the profiling of the younger talent and he hopes that in the next year the fans will agree with him. He speaks about working with Kevin Nash and how it’s been good and how there wasn’t a lot of established respect between them before but now that they’ve worked together that the respect is there and Joe feels like Nash is an asset to the business.

Question about how Joe was the main man in TNA and whether he was concerned about his spot when Kurt Angle came in. Joe says not at all and that guys like Angle and Booker have name value and that they have more recognition than Joe did based on their backgrounds. Joe feels like he’s always been positioned well in the company and that they show up for the big names but stay for Joe. They bring up the shoot and what Joe’s reaction would be if TNA gave Scott Hall another chance. If he was ready to be productive and be a contributor then Joe would have no problem, but if he’s there to catch an easy payday, it wouldn’t work. Joe says that Hall is responsible for a lot of memorable moments and a lot of money drawn in wrestling and if TNA could capitalize on that it’d be great.

Joe talks about his favorite matches, starting in TNA with his matches with AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels before moving on to the Kenta Kobashi match in ROH. Joe says that they’re going to try some new things on Sunday night and that he hopes that himself and Angle will be able to have a great match. Talk turns to the ratings for the live Impact show, and Joe says that he wants to hit a home run every time and that the ratings were a little disappointing because he always wants things to be a success. The discussion moves back to the MMA aspect of the main event on Sunday and whether the fans will not be receptive to it. Joe says that there’s always a concern when you try something new like that and he thinks that they have enough crossover between the two sports that they can make it work.

They ask about his ROH title reign and his X-Division title and what a TNA World Title win would mean for him. Joe says that it’s an opportunity to prove that a Samoa Joe title run would work in a national company on a larger level and that he hopes to get the chance. He moves on to the benefits of working with Kurt previously and he says that it’s always an advantage to know how someone works and that the only danger is that if you’ve worked well with someone before there’s always the pressure to try to top what’s been done before. Joe says that he’ll probably walk away with a lot of bumps and bruises but it will be worth it if the match turns out right. Joe says that his knee is feeling better than it has in a long time and that he’ll be able to handle the pressure and schedule of a championship reign if it happens.

Question about whether it’s harder to push yourself to a title run during contract negotiations. Joe says it isn’t because he takes a tremendous amount of pride in his in-ring work and that he wouldn’t put his name on a match unless he thought it was his best effort and that he leaves the contract stuff behind the curtain. Again the talk turns to the MMA aspect of wrestling and Joe says that eventually MMA will begin to have a huge impact on all combat sports, not just pro-wrestling and he says that the influence of MMA is going to be very prevalent and that MMA will someday eclipse boxing and become the number-one combat sport in the world and that they have to know their market and how to present it.

Joe says that he is very excited about the TNA video game and that he’s very disappointed with the Smackdown game’s fighting engine and that the engine in the TNA game is something that a lot of fans will be happy with. They ask about Joe and his work on the independents and how much of an advantage it is for him and whether it surprises him the reaction he gets from independent shows in places where he’s never been before. Joe says that it’s case by case, but for the most part he loves the Indy show environment and that it feels comfortable for him and it’s fun for him to go back to. He talks about the tremendous response he’s had in Canada and that there are times where there are horrible shows in small towns, but it comes with the territory. Joe talks about how his title reign in TNA will be different than the reign in ROH if it comes.

Joe says that he liked the vibe in town when WrestleMania came to Orlando and he says that the town was turned into a pro-wrestling mecca and that it was a lot of fun for him personally. Joe gets asked about post-TNA life and Joe says that he’s going to hire himself out as a sparring partner and that Starbucks has a good pension plan from what he’s heard, but that he doesn’t plan for failure. He gets asked about what the best piece of advice Kevin Nash ever gave him was and he gives us a little tidbit and then talk turns to Japan and where Joe will work if he goes back to Japan and he talks about how the TNA schedule is getting bigger and it’s making it harder on him to do international travel but he would love to go back and work with NOAH again, or perhaps to work in New Japan since they have a working relationship with TNA. Joe says that if he had come up today he might have tried MMA, but coming in when he did, he loves pro-wrestling and he loves entertaining fans, but he feels like he’s in TNA for a reason.

Joe’s worst injury in the middle of a match was broken ribs and that it was miserable for him on every level before, during and after and that it’s hard no matter how you look at it. They ask him who had the greatest mustache in wrestling and he’s torn between Dutch Mantel and Big Bully Busick and his handlebar number. Joe gets asked about what his family life was like growing up and whether any things pushed him into pro-wrestling. Joe talks about how he used to be on the road with his dad and the performance troupe that he was a part of and that it made his transition to pro-wrestling easier because he was already used to the travel and being on the road all the time. He’s asked about the top three talents outside of TNA who could be brought in and he says the Briscoe Brothers, Nigel McGuinness and throws out Austin Aries and Roderick Strong as guys he would like to see get brought back.

A question about who Joe would face if he could face anyone from the ROH days. He says that he would love to face CM Punk again because they always worked well together and he says that you could probably name off five or six guys from ROH and that he’d go well with all of them. He says that in terms of TNA talent he’d love to get a chance to work with Booker T and that their resumes speak for themselves. A question comes out about the ratings and popularity of wrestling stagnating and what can be done to bring in a new audience. Joe talks about how there needs to be a new hook or a new way to bring in fans but no one has been able to find it yet. Joe chalks it up to trial and error and that it’s hard to implement risks when it’s a company’s money at stake.

Joe feels like the most overlooked guys in TNA are guys like Kazarian and Curry Man, as they’re both drawing some attention. Joe talks about the Ric Flair retirement and says that his reaction was that Flair had a spectacular career and that WWE did a great job of sending him off, saying that he would have loved a chance to work with him. Joe says that time will tell if he ever ends up in the WWE and he’s with TNA now and very happy with them and he hopes to continue the relationship moving forward. Talk turns to the criticisms of TNA’s overuse of gimmicks and they ask how he feels about an entire card of cage matches and Joe says that the million dollar question is whether they’ll be able to keep the fans interest after watching two and a half hours of cage matches. Joe thinks that the TNA roster is talented enough to not need as many gimmicks to entertain the fans and he says that it’s a challenge to keep the cage in play and make your match something fantastic and Joe says that he thinks that he and Kurt will be able to do that. He’s looking most forward to the Booker T/Robert Roode match outside of his own. We’re thanked for our time and that’s it for the call, Joe finishes off with a “Go Team Cage” and we’re out!!