Samoa Joe was a recent guest of The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast and he talked about his time with NXT, and the unique contract position he found himself in while there. The current “King of All Television” also spoke about how he came to be cast in the Twisted Metal movie as “Sweet Tooth.”
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
His initial NXT deal allowing him to work indie dates: “What happened with TNA during that time to the transition to NXT was obviously very unique and very unusual. For Hunter [Triple H] to take that type of chance and go against internal dogma, by the people who were at the time, was a big thing. He offered me a great initial deal. After that went well, he offered me a better one. I think he offered me two more that were even better as we kept going. And then we were finally in business properly, full-time. For me, that was validation as far as all the work that I had done, all the time spent, was all for good.”
The management problems that led to his first WWE release: “Being released from WWE the first time… as I understand it, unconfirmed, there [were] issues between the two upper echelons of management and they were playing out their war with the careers and the contracts of the people underneath them. After the initial one, I didn’t have much of a chance to breathe, because essentially I was hired back within hours.”
His second NXT release and reaction: “The second time, I just kinda chuckled. I realized it was very much the same situation. At the same time, I wasn’t bitter or mad. The truth of it is, and this is to give, I guess, WWE some credence, I was expensive (laughs). I was expensive to keep around. And if cutting my contract, they say that saved the company money, trust me, I believe it did. I wasn’t hot about that, it was just more the silliness of the situation and what they were doing, and the reasoning why they were doing it. Which you can never officially confirm, but I’ve heard from enough people that have pretty good idea, including many of the people involved.”
How he came to be in the new Twisted Metal movie: “The guy that I had met fifteen years prior, and we had a mutual friend. Hung out, watched pay-per-views together, stuff like that. He was kind of like just getting started out at New Line Cinema at the time. He gives me a call, and he’s now a major producer at Sony Pictures. He’s like, ‘hey man, I’ve got an opportunity for you. It’s pretty crazy. Are you available?’ Yeah yeah, sure, I’m available; I’ve just been made available. ‘You heard of Twisted Metal?’ Yeah, the video game. He’s like ‘Sweet Tooth.’ I’m in, let’s do it!”
