9/5 TNA Conference Call with Samoa Joe: Joe takes questions on MMA's influence on wrestling, blow back from King Mo, improvements to the Bound for Glory series, TNA in the UK, and more

TNA held a media conference call with Samoa Joe on Wednesday, September 5 to promote the TNA No Surrender pay-per-view. The following are the highlights of the call.

-TNA's Chris Thomas opened the conference call by hyping both this Thursday's Impact Wrestling and this Sunday's No Surrender PPV. He also hyped a UK exclusive show that I missed the name of, but it is TNA's version of Tough Enough.

-Joe's first question was how the Bound for Glory series was different this year. Joe said the tournament made sense this year where last year it didn't. He also put over the live Impact as being the biggest improvement with Impact.

-Joe said he thought MMA was making some impact in wrestling, but in a good way as guys are incorporating the best parts without ignoring what wrestling is.

-Joe was very complimentary of Magnus and said Magnus is very close to breaking through because he has finally seen his own potential.

-Joe was asked what he thought about how he had been used over the years, specifically with last year's BFG series. Joe called it an interesting question and said he was always willing to try whatever, but that TNA's hands-off approach has helped him recently.

-Joe said he thinks that he is making more noise than usual and that he is going out and taking advantage of his opportunities. He said he had no idea what long term plans for him were because wrestling is a fluid product so long term planning is difficult.

-Joe said he thought there was great talent in the indies and that they needed to strike creatively while the companies were looking for new recruits. He mentioned Willie Mack in Southern California as someone who should get a look soon.

-Joe said he is worried about blowback from King Mo coming into TBNA, but there is always a risk of blowback whenever any non-wrestler comes into wrestling. He said after running into King Mo and talking with him,. He is excited to see Mo debut because he thinks he is a guy who is going to do all the right things and work hard to be prepared.

-Joe said he did see potential for TNA to do an offshoot product in the UK like the Ring Ka King offshoot in India. He said he would certainly want to be a part of it if asked.

-Joe said his scariest moment was diving out of the sky box in Chicago. He also no sold that he had been kidnapped in 2010 when asked if that was Aces and 8s who did it.

-Joe said the locker room does discuss when guys are leaving, like Devon or Angelina Love, but that was also the nature of the business and nobody was really affected by it. He did agree that most people leave the company on good terms, and that he always hopes that's how it happens.

-Joe said he has no plans to retire and will wrestle as long as he feels like he can.

-Joe thought his in-ring improvement was the biggest difference between ROH and TNA because he's getting more ring time with the schedule. He said he had changed his stylistic approach to where he is more cogent of others abilities and not just trying to stay locked into his gimmick.

-Joe put over all the guys he worked with in ROH who are now successful as guys who were concerned with improving their wrestling and being the best wrestler and that's they are all successful and that attitude is what you are going to find in the best of the indy scene.

-Joe was asked if his perfect TNA moment was his match with Christopher Daniels and Joe said that's as close as you could get.

-Joe put over CM Punk and said he isn't surprised by his success and that he appreciated being the guy Punk would like to get back in the ring with. He joked that anytime Punk wanted to come to Orlando it wouldn't be a problem.

-Joe said his response to whatever his kid wanted to be, whether it was a wrestler or not, was he would support him as long as he made money and made it honest.

-Chris closed the show after a little over 45 minutes of questions.

Shore's Slant: Joe was pretty good here, but I was alarmed by the lack of questions he received. They allowed some people to ask three questions which is very rare, and continued to offer the question option. I know many of my planned questions were asked by others, which says to me that there isn't a lot to ask Joe after the way he has been used the past couple of years. His recent months have been better, but they still have a lot of work to do to make him really relevant again.