Samoa Joe has relinquished the NXT Championship due undisclosed injuries. Although Joe did promise to be back soon, Joe says WWE’s medical team would not clear him to compete or give him a solid timetable for a return. The situation involving Joe and the NXT Championship was recently addressed on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Joe surrendering the title reportedly has to do with him not being one of the talents is NXT will focus on moving forward. “It’s a weird story,” said Dave Meltzer. “Essentially, he’s still with the company but I don’t know if he’s going to be wrestling much.”
After being released from the main roster in the spring, Joe signed with NXT and was initially brought back as General Manager William Regal’s enforcer.
“The official thing that I was just told is that he was hired to be more of an administrator, more of a front office person than a wrestler, so that’s going to be his job.”
A revamped version of NXT will debut this Tuesday night on the USA Network. The new era will kick off with the vacated championship as a top storyline.
“The idea with NXT now is to develop stars for the future and Joe is in his 40s and is not the future. He’s going to be a coach and a trainer and things like that based on what I was told,” Meltzer continued.
Samoa Joe won the NXT Championship from Karrion Kross just a few weeks ago Takeover 36 during SummerSlam weekend.
