10 Wrestling Storylines That Vanished Without A Trace
4. Samoa Joe Is Kidnapped By Ninjas
In February 2009, Samoa Joe was abducted by ninjas. Wrestling is weird.
In actuality, it's just a bunch of guys in black hoodies but they somehow got the moniker of ninjas which makes the proposed story even weirder. This idea came out of nowhere, ending a random episode of TNA Impact with the former world champion being bundled into a white van and driven off into the night.
Originally, Joe was apparently going to return as a psychopathic heel character. However, TNA needed faces. As such, by the end of April, Joe had made a grand return to fill a gap in the babyface Team Hogan against Team Flair. And thus, it was never mentioned again.
In 2021, writer Vince Russo attested that Bischoff's original plan was to have Jimmy Snuka of all people be behind the strange attack but it didn't pan out. Thus, left with an unfinished story and a hole in their roster they chose to completely abandon it.
Whilst TNA never went back to the well with the kidnapping, Joe himself made a cute reference to it in 2020 during his time on WWE commentary when he remarked "ninjas can really ruin a night".