Current AEW star and a former three times WWE NXT Champion Samoa Joe who is also the current and two times AEW TNT Champion recently talked about getting released from WWE twice in less than one year time. He also discussed his decision to sign with the All Elite Wrestling.
Samoa Joe joined WWE back in 2015 and he spent an excellent time in the promotion as he won multiple championships in the promotion. He held the record of winning the WWE NXT championship for a total number of three times. He has also won the WWE United States Championship for a total of two times.
Samoa Joe Reflects On His Recent WWE Releases
In 2021, WWE went through a releasing spree as they were trying to adjust their budget after the horrible covid-19 pandemic. They released a lot of wrestlers including some of the biggest names of the promotion. One of those released names was Samoa Joe. It was heart breaking for his fans to se him go out of WWE.
It was said that Triple H was a deeply saddened by this release and he decided to bring him back to the NXT once again. Joe returned to the NXT soon and won the NXT championship for the third time in his career. But after WWE rebranded the NXT to NXT 2.0, they released Joe again. He decided to join AEW following his WWE release.
Samoa Joe who is also the current and two times AEW TNT Champion recently spoke to Renee Paquette on The Sessions podcast where he talked about getting released from WWE twice in less than one year time. He also discussed his decision to sign with the All Elite Wrestling. He said;
“Being released from WWE the first time… I deign to say that initially, as I understand it, unconfirmed, there is issues between the two upper echelons in management and they were planning out their war with the careers and contracts of the people underneath them. So, after the initial one, I didn’t have much of a chance to grieve because essentially, I was hired back within hours.”
“And then the second time (I was released from WWE), I just kind of chuckled because I realized it was very much the same situation but at the same time, I wasn’t bitter or mad. The truth of it is… this is to really give WWE some credence I guess was that I was expensive. I was expensive to keep around and if cutting my contract, if they said that saved the company money, trust me, I believe it did so, I wasn’t hot about that.
“It was more of just the silliness of the situation, what they were doing and the reasoning why they were doing it but, which you can never officially confirm but I’ve heard from enough people, I have a pretty good idea of what went down, so including many of the people involved so, after that, I think I’d spent a day kind of pissed and like you said, more at the situation than the actual firing and then all these super awesome opportunities literally materialized out of nowhere.”
“Oh, all the money they threw at me (Joe joked about why he was attracted to AEW). I mean, immediately threw all my morals away and — no. I was legitimately thinking about hanging it up, for health reasons. You know, obviously still coming off the concussion and still dealing with the very hidden effects of that and getting back in the ring healthy and transitioning back to a physical state where it’s like, I could do something for a good period of time and not wanna pass out. “
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