Samoa Joe was released twice by WWE, once in April 2021 and then again in January 2022, with reports that Triple H lobbied for him to stay after his first release. And it seems there were deeper issues with the releases which we may not have known at the time.
The current AEW star and ROH Tv Champion was the latest superstar to appear on The Sessions with Renee Paquette to discuss various matters, including being brought into NXT and his escalating contracts from Triple H.
Joe said: “I think what happened with TNA during that time and the transition to NXT was obviously very unique and very unusual, for Hunter to take that type of chance and kind of go against internal dogma by the people that were there at the time; it was the big thing,” Samoa Joe admitted. “And he offered me a great initial deal. And after that went well, he offered me a better one. I think he offered me two more that were even better than that as we kept going. And then we were finally in business like, properly full-time. And I mean, for me, that was kind of just validation as far as like all of the work that I’d done and all the time spent was all for good.”
Joe then went on further to discuss his two releases from WWE and how those releases ended up in a battle between two sides of upper management.
Joe revealed: “And then being released from WWE the first time I’ll say that initially there, as I understand it, unconfirmed, there was issues between the two upper echelons of management and they were playing out their war with the careers and the contracts of the people underneath them. So after the initial one, I mean, I didn’t have much of a chance to grieve because essentially, I was hired back within hours”
Joe went further about his second release:
“And then the second time, I just kind of chuckled, because I realized it was very much the same situation. But at the same time, I mean, I wasn’t bitter or mad. The truth of it is, 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.”
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“So I wasn’t like hot about that. It was just more just the silliness of the situation and what they were doing, and the reasoning why they’re doing it, which I can’t officially confirm but I’ve heard from enough people that have a pretty good idea, including many of the people involved. So after that, it was kind of like I think I spent a day kind of pissed. Like I said more at the situation than the actual firing. And then like all these like super awesome opportunities, literally materialized out of nowhere.”
Interesting notes from Samoa Joe, is this an indictment on how WWE has been run backstage over the last few years, with releases sky rocketing in recent years.
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Photo Credit: AEW
Author: Alex Bakothanasis
One Stop Wrestling 