NINJA'S LAWSUIT AGAINST COOL JOE DROPPED.

Maci Gian

We all know Cool Joe has been working hard with his team to prepare for their match against Technicali, but what we didn’t know was the fact the Crossing King was going through a whole other battle alongside it!

Some weeks ago, Ninja had apparently filed a lawsuit against Cool Joe for copyright infringement, and accused him of: ‘Stealing and making a mockery of Cosmos’ symbol’, and even went as far as to say Cool Joe was making a mockery of him. What caused such claims to arise? Would it surprise you if we told you it could be traced back to a brief but infamous moment within Cool Joe’s music career?

It took place between Supa Strikas’ matches against Colossus and Iron Tank. He was offered a contract deal by the multi-million dollar studio, A&R, to which he happily agreed to, and proceeded to make a ‘plutonium single’ as they called it, and released the song: “My love for you will go on and on and on and on for you forever and ever, my darling.”

While it did become #1 across multiple music charts and raked in millions for the midfielder, the money wasn’t coming from dedicated Supa Strika fans, in fact, those who liked the song hadn’t even heard of this iconic team, much less engaged in the Super League itself. His actual fanbase, however? Loathed it. The drastic change from the music master’s iconic disco & groove to a more modern, slow paced love song left anything but a good taste in their mouths.

Cool Joe’s music wasn’t the only thing to go under a drastic change; his attire went from colorful and expressive to tight and rigid. He wore glittery, silver spandex with chunky, blue shoulder pads so tacky it made Technicali’s uniform look like glistening armor, and the gaudy cherry on top of it all…?

A headband.

A blue headband with an outlined, white star in the center of it.

Not only that, he also had a star in the center of his uniform.

If you thought this design looked familiar to another team’s, you’re not the only one!

When his plutonium single started to be put on shelves all over the world, it eventually ended up in the hands of an opposing team: Cosmos.

To say they weren’t fond of the striking similarities between these stars would be putting it lightly. Both Buddy Watkins Jr. and Ninja had gone out of their way to loudly criticize the midfielder’s newest look.

“It’s one thing t’go and steal our design, but t’make terrible music with it plastered on ya?! I’d feel less offended if th’fool spat on it!” Buddy had told the press.

“We’re not gonna have some guy parading around with our star on him!” Ninja exclaimed, “You know how many people are gonna think he’s associated with us?! They’re gonna think we like the song too! It’s bad enough we gotta deal with those schmucks out on the field! We don’t need more of them outside of it!”

The public questioned if there was a chance this similarity was merely a coincidence, though it was immediately shot down for reasonings such as:

On the topic of headbands, Ninja certainly wasn’t happy to see an opposing player stealing his signature style, and added it onto the lawsuit.

After these interviews, Cool Joe’s phase ended as quickly as it began, and he had ditched this ‘new and improved’ persona during a halftime show at Strikaland. Most fans hardly discuss this portion of his career, and despite selling thousands of CDs, they’re now a rarity to come across, and are considered a valuable collector’s item for hardcore Strika fans.

Little did Joe and the fans know, while they were over it, Ninja certainly wasn’t, and kept pushing for legal action, claiming the midfielder was ‘mocking him’ and trying to ‘defame him’.

The exact amount of time this legal hassle took is not known, but it must’ve caused quite a strain for the lawyer dealing with it, as the day they finally made the announcement bringing it to light was the same day they dropped it.

“…Frankly, I understand where Ninja and his coach are coming from.” The lawyer said to the press, “I thought they also looked quite similar, but I also recognize it’s a star. A star. There’s only so many ways you can conceptualize a ball of gas… The similarities stop and end at the star, Cool Joe wasn’t pretending to be Ninja, he wasn’t parodying him, nor was he claiming to be a part of Cosmos, he just used a shape. Unless Ninja is constantly wearing a silver leotard under his uniform that we can’t see, I have no reason to believe Cool Joe was targeting him specifically…”

The lawyer had also commented on how they had some ‘Choice words they’d love to say about Ninja’, but refrained from doing so. Whether it was because they no longer wanted to utter his name again, or because Cosmos’ coach had paid them to stay quiet, we’ll never know, but they did end their announcement with this:

“Cosmos has the money, but I don’t have the time. Not for this, at least. If they truly wish to pursue this further, they can take it to A&R themselves. They were the ones who approved of the design. Joe only wore it.”

While most of the documents about this case are still hidden from the public, someone had managed to find and release a snippet of it:

Shorty after this, Ninja shared that he would no longer be fighting this legal battle and instead: “We’ll take it to the field. I’ll humble that sucker real good. He already humiliated himself enough, but I think someone else ought to finish the job.”

Will Ninja stay true to his words? Or is he actually secretly hunting for another lawyer again? We may not find out till the fateful day where Strikas and Cosmos go head to head!