During a recent appearance on the “Out of Character with Ryan Satin” podcast, Samoa Joe commented on his release from WWE, Triple H contacting him shortly after it was announced and wanting him to return, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his reaction to his WWE release: “It was weird. Johnny [Ace] called me, and I thought it was a rare call from Johnny. ‘Hey, what’s up Johnny? How are you doing?’ He told me, ‘Hey listen, we’re going to have to release you from your contract.’ And I was like, ‘OK. Cool.’ And he said, ‘Hey Joe, we think the world of you and would love to work with you again.’ And I was like, ‘Alright, absolutely Johnny.’ And honestly, I did have a bit of understanding. Obviously at the time, dealing with injuries, coming back and getting ready to get my rehabilitation going and all that stuff. And we’re in a pandemic and all this other stuff. I got it. It wasn’t expected, but at the same time, I was relatively calm about it. I’ve kind of been in this situation before. A younger me probably would’ve been really freaked out. But at this point, you just roll and pivot. That’s really all there is to it when it comes to life in general. That’s kind of the mantra I’ve kept, so at that point, I think I was kind of already in the works of setting up the next frameworks of what I was going to do.”
On getting a call from Triple H shortly after his release: “A few hours later I get a call from Hunter [Triple H] and pretty much all kind of changed….I had sent some company farewell texts to people to some people I genuinely enjoyed working with, and just something general, ‘Hey thanks, and I’m sure we’ll talk down the road at some point.’ And I got a text back, ‘Hey, give me a minute. I’m getting out of a meeting.’ Then we had a brief conversation, which was essentially, ‘Give us a little bit of time, I’ll work out a package and we’ll be talking soon.’ And I said, ‘Alright, that’s totally fine. I have no problem with that.’ And it led to my return back to NXT.”
On whether he had any hesitations about returning to WWE: “No. A lot of it was that me and Triple H had spoken about this transition in-depth. It wasn’t just coming back to NXT and being an enforcer and having a role on the show. Now I’m working in the talent scouting department, a few more administrative things here and there behind the scenes, so it’s a little bit of a transition for me too into some of the other aspects of the business of the WWE. So, it’s kind of an evolution of my journey. I’ve gone to the commentary and production ranks, and now I’m working a bit more on behind-the-house types of things. It was a really great, cool opportunity that Hunter offered me. And [I’m] still performing here in the bounds of the WWE. So, it was a very nice understanding that we’ve come to, and I’m really excited about some of the projects we’re going to be working on.”
On if he’s working towards returning to the ring: “Absolutely. We’ll just say yes. We’ll leave it at that.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
