Just months after being released by WWE due to budget cuts, Samoa Joe didn’t just get signed back, but also to put him back in the ring at a time where some fans questioned whether he would ever be cleared to wrestle again inside of a WWE ring.
Joe spoke with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT to talk about his return and during it, he noted that WWE did have talks about moving him back from the main roster to NXT a few years ago, but it was nixed.
“I just think a decision was made on one-end, but this tenure and position in NXT I currently have now was kind of talked about two or three years ago. It was a matter of when we were going to get the opportunity to make the transition and there really wasn’t an opportunity because I was so busy with Raw and SmackDown. So it’s not like they were going to pull me from there and move me to NXT at the time.”
Joe was moved from an active in-ring performer to being an announcer after he suffered a concussion in early 2020 during a Raw commercial shoot for the USA Network.
He’ll challenge Karrion Kross for the NXT Title at TakeOver 36 next Sunday.
