YMMV / Samoa Joe

• Americans Hate Tingle
  • More like "Japanese People Hate Samoa Joe." He has gotten unexpectedly negative reactions while wrestling in Japan, particularly in his match against Mitsuharu Misawa in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Some suspect the Japanese see Joe as a Misawa ripoff.
  • The Japanese fans were also none to thrilled to see Kazuchika Okada acting as Samoa Joe's sidekick in TNA, as many of them believe Joe to be a far inferior wrestler and even those that don't still think that Okada's treatment in TNA was awful and just take it out on Samoa Joe for being a visible target. That said, Joe was well received during TNA's inter promotional X Division match with Wrestle-1 however.
• And You Thought It Would Fail:
  • What Bruce Pritchard and Jim Ross thought when they first saw Joe in UPW, saying he would not be going anywhere. They were proven wrong when Joe wound up becoming the longest-reigning champion UPW had until Christopher Daniels (technically). Despite this, Mick Foley still could not get WWE to sign Joe.
  • Despite being part of the KOI event that inspired the promotion's creation, Ring of Honor originally planned to only use Joe in one match, but since he immediately caught on they called him back. Joe would go on to become the longest-reigning champion Ring of Honor ever had.
• Angst Dissonance: His feud with Kurt Angle was the most financially successful in TNA's history. Unfortunately for Joe it resulted in his destruction and kicking down the card while his drawing power on the independent circuit dried up. Then his chances to rebuild were cut off by yet more 'big names' from WWE/WCW. So did the fans sympathize? Not TNA's, not until years after he voiced said complaints anyway.
• Author's Saving Throw: ZERO1 tried to solve the above Misawa ripoff problem by giving Joe a more exaggerated Samoan gimmick. However, whether it would have worked or not was not relevant, as it caused Joe to leave the promotion.
• Awesome Music
  • His World Champion Theme "The Champ Is Here", was widely beloved
  • While the Nation of Violence gimmick is widely mocked, the theme song is popular in spite of its lyrics being kind of insulting and has persevered long after the gimmick died off.
  • Destroyer, full stop. The beat even makes fans want to chant "JOE! JOE! JOE!" to the beat of the theme.
• Badass Decay: Most fans don't argue over whether if it happened, but when it happened: when he lost the world title to Sting at Bound for Glory, when his "Nation of Violence" gimmick caused him to go into Wild Samoan-mode, when Scott Steiner went to fat shame him every chance he got, or when he literally handed Kurt Angle the World Heavyweight Title instead of taking it for himself. Joe didn't really regain his badass credentials until he left TNA and went to NXT, reinvigorated and in the best shape of his life. Any attempts in TNA itself would inevitably be halted by TNA being what it is and any attempt away prior would be halted by TNA tugging him in by the leash.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: That time Samoa Joe was kidnapped by ninjas. As it was just one of the many, many throw-shit-at-the-wall-and-pray-it-sticks moments in early TNA, it never came up again.
• Draco in Leather Pants/Ron the Death Eater:
  • He was booed against Kurt Angle and Sting despite them being in the Main Event Mafia, as the storyline couldn't make them hate genuine legends for a murderous, violence worshiping brute. Later after joining the Main Event Mafia, he was cheered against Bobby Lashley... despite being a murderous, violence worshiping brute. Because TNA fans back then saw Lashley as being a WWE manufacturing bust.
  • It's well known at this stage that Joe was meant to be Immortal's harbinger rather than Abyss (the ninja kidnapping Aborted Arc was meant to lead up to this). However, he was getting cheered whilst beating up babyfaces, and so they had to can it. Didn't help that the babyfaces he was beating up included the literally-uncheerable Jeff Jarrett and Hulk Hogan clone Abyss.
• Fan Nickname: "SmoJo" and "Señor Joe", thanks to the infamous Steiner Maths promo.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: TWC International Showdown headlined by him and CM Punk drew the largest crowd for a UK indy show in history and boasted the highest ringside ticket gross on European soil.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The "Joe's gonna kill you!" chants, after Tyson Kidd got a very serious neck injury from a Muscle Buster that would have killed anyone without a wrestler's neck muscles.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The stable Joe was in during his last days in TNA, the Beat Down Clan, had a rap theme song in which its leader MVP took shots at NJPW's Bullet Club, hinting at an interest in running up against them in a program or cross-Shout-Out angle of some sort (which Homicide would later confirm was the case in shoot interviews after the end of the BDC). Fast forward to Joe's run on NXT, he currently finds himself The Rival and unlikely ally to Finn Bálor, current NXT Champion... and former original leader of the Bullet Club. Even funnier is how this carried out to its logical conclusion: OF COURSE the BDC guy wants the BizCliz guy's title.
  • The Joe vs. Bálor feud, compared to both groups' futures. BDC didn't have much of a future; it died after about half a year of being named thanks to contract faux-pas and weeks of tapings having to be aborted as a result. Bullet Club, on the other hand, is still very much a thing even after three of its top guys (including Joe's good friend AJ Styles) came to WWE. In contrast, Joe was able to defeat Finn after numerous tries at a house show, then retain at Takeover: The End and take down Finn's Demon in the process.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The ninja kidnapping incident in 2010.
    "Everyone says that! I honestly don't remember it."
  • Not from Joe himself but he was the subject of a Scott Steiner created meme. When asked about Joe (who he was feuding with), Scott famously yelled, "HE'S FAT!!!!!"
    "Damn you, Scott Steiner promos! And your unintentional hilarity!"
  • The audience chanting, "Joe is gonna kill you!"
  • "Is Samoa Joe gonna have to choke a bitch?"
  • "OHHHHH WENDYYYYYYYYY~!" This prompted Wendy's to respond with a fast food version of the infamous Steiner Math promo.
  • ANGRY TRUMPETS
• Tear Jerker: His segment on the 'Jay Briscoe Tribute and Celebration of Life' following the tragic passing of Jay Briscoe, where he talked about what Jay meant to him. Samoe Joe, one of the hardest men in wrestling, is openly crying while he struggles to get the words out, so stricken is he by the loss of a friend he'd known for decades.
• Vindicated by History: His reaction to Scott Hall's no-show at Turning Point 2007. Given a live mic to announce his replacement in the match, Joe used the opportunity to shoot on his frustration of how "superstars" are starting to flood into the promotion and take away the spotlight from the homegrown talent. At the time he was denounced as a whiner. Today, fans who look back on it see it as one of the forewarnings of the major problems TNA would have later on, which would reach its zenith at the start of the Hogan-Bischoff era, where everyone got shoved down the card to make room for their buddies and ex-WWE and WCW wrestlers. Joe is now seen in a much more sympathetic light, especially as his TNA career slowed down to midcard hell.