It certainly appears that there was a deeper meaning to the two times Samoa Joe was released by WWE than many initially thought.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Samoa Joe was the latest guest on The Sessions with Renee Paquette to discuss a wide variety of subjects. While discussing first being brought into WWE NXT, Joe spoke about the various contracts he got from Triple H, each one being better than the last.
“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.”
Samoa Joe then went on to discuss his two releases from WWE and how those releases had to do with two sides of upper management going to war with each other.
“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,” Samoa Joe revealed. 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.
“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.
“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.”
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What do you make of Samoa Joe’s comments? Does his explanation explain a lot about what’s been happening behind the scenes in WWE over the last few years? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit The Sessions with a link back to this article for the transcription.
