As we reported earlier today here on eWn, Samoa Joe has been released from WWE for the second time in seven months. Joe was part of the WWE NXT and Performance Center cuts that took place on Wednesday.
According to a report from Fightful, people at the WWE Performance Center found out that Joe had been released on Wednesday. The news didn’t come out until Thursday.
As of this writing, there has been no public statement from WWE on the recent releases. This is similar to what the company has been doing in recent months, as they are no longer making the names of those being released public. Prior to Wednesday’s releases, the talent and staff have been sent a text via the WWE talent relations app but that hasn’t been the case as of late.
According to sources, Samoa Joe’s release is said to be the result of “further dismantling” the version of NXT Triple H created. As you’d expect, Vince McMahon and other top executives clearly aren’t happy that AEW Dynamite defeated WWE NXT head-to-head from the start (except for one week) and Triple H was the head man in charge at the time so all the blame gets placed on him. While WWE originally said talent wouldn’t be a part of Wednesday’s cuts, Samoa Joe, Timothy Thatcher and Danny Burch are all done in terms of in-ring performances for the company.
Some staff at the WWE Performance Center noted that within a few weeks of Samoa Joe vacating the NXT Championship, there was very little talk about him returning to the ring. Similar to William Regal, Joe had been working as a scout for the company. Both Regal and Joe were heavily involved in the recent WWE tryouts and often made the decisions on who to hire.
Several sources at the WWE Performance Center believe that Joe will return to the ring outside of WWE. As of this writing, there is no word on what his no-compete clause terms are.
One higher-up in the company said Joe handled his latest WWE release “as professionally as possible, and considering the last few years he’s had here that’s easier said than done.”
Additionally, four longtime independent promoters have already shown interest in booking Samoa Joe if he’s interested in returning to the ring.
As far as Triple H is concerned, there is no word on how he feels about the changes and recent releases of some of his top people. Obviously, he would never blast the company publicly no matter how he feels but you can imagine he’s not very happy.
It should also be noted that many people within WWE believe a sale is coming sooner rather than later. This is due to the fact that companies usually try to cut their losses prior to selling, which in turn results in a bigger sale price. Of course, the sale talks are nothing more than a rumor for now.
