Joe was released in 2021 and brought back that same year.
Following WrestleMania 37, WWE made cuts to their talent roster and one of the many names let go from the company was Samoa Joe. He was brought back two months later.
As Joe was speaking to Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast, he recounted that first exit from WWE and stated that he was hired back ‘hours’ later.
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.
The second release occurred in January 2022. Joe opted to give WWE some credence with that decision and said he was expensive to keep around. Joe added that if that’s the reason, he believes it.
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.
Joe arrived to All Elite Wrestling/Ring of Honor at Supercard of Honor in April. He shared that prior to joining the company, he was considering retirement. He joked that it was the amount of money AEW offered him which caused him to throw away all his morals.
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.
He was holding both the ROH World Television and AEW TNT Championships until he dropped the TNT belt to Darby Allin. Joe put Darby on notice on the most recent Dynamite.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
