Samoa Joe recently spoke with Alex Biese for the Asbury Park Press while promoting this week’s WWE RAW television taping in Newark, NJ. You can read a few highlights below:
Samoa Joe comments on MMA’s influence on professional wrestling:
I think it’s just kind of a natural part of anything evolving. I mean, if you’re not evolving and setting new bars and new heights and making adjustments, you’re probably dying. And I think (that’s the case) when you talk about things like evolution and embracing new concepts and embracing new things, and embracing new aspects of general culture that people recognize, MMA being one of them.
You know, 10 years ago you’d be hard-pressed to see a cross arm-breaker being recognizable to the average WWE fan. And now, with the influence of MMA, the cross arm-breaker, the rear naked choke, things that were oftentimes not viewed as being WWE style are becoming very, very terrifying predicaments for some performers. And I think for fans, too. So I think it’s all a natural part of the evolutionary process and something that I think definitely in the world of wrestling has never been shied away from.
Samoa Joe comments on which WWE Superstars he’d like to work with, whether it’s a previous opponent or someone new:
In a lot of ways, I think it would be easier to provide a list of people who I’m not excited to get in the ring and go a round with. I mean, the answer is probably more people than I can list in this certain amount of time.
(At) the top of that list, obviously, (are) the John Cenas of the world, Randy Orton. Of course, me and AJ (Styles), we’ve battled for years back and forth, so anything involving him I’m more than compliant with. Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, the list really is quite long — and hopefully I’ll get to a lot of those places in the coming years.
Samoa Joe comments on what makes a perfect heel in professional wrestling:
I think to illicit negative emotions out of the crowd, you almost have to have a moral high ground to stand on. It’s just (that) his way of interpreting that moral high ground is slightly skewed and/or sadistic and wrong. So, I think those are some heel elements.
Something that your heel has to say in the ring is, he has to say something that resonates with the audience where the audience knows that they’re wrong for feeling a certain way but they’ll occasionally embrace that way of thinking. Those are some of the major things; I think he has to have a point. It’s just the way he goes about enforcing that point is probably not the best way.
