4 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Chronicle: Samoa Joe

1. Next-To-No Focus On Joe's Recovery

samoa joe promo
WWE.com

In teasers and the trailer, WWE seemed to suggest that this Chronicle would take fans inside the head of Samoa Joe as he prepared to make a grand return from injury post-WrestleMania (after sadly missing the big show) and rev up the engine in time for SummerSlam. Unfortunate news flash alert: it didn't, at all.

One scene even sees Joe rubbish the notion that anybody should feel sorry for him, and he barely even acknowledges the foot injury he suffered this past January that caused him 'Mania heartache. It's as though that didn't happen.

The film begins to lose a bit of steam towards the end when the spotlight shifts to hyping up Joe's crack at Styles in Brooklyn. In the final 15-20 minutes, which is almost half the length of the thing, Chronicle becomes less about Joe's recovery and more about how much of a bad ass he is. As a result, he's presented as two different people.

That may have been fine had the injury been discussed in-depth at the start or used as motivation for a warrior mentality. It wasn't, and that's rather baffling when personal pain was such a massive part of the synopsis going in.

Advertisement
In this post: 
Samoa Joe
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.