During the post-ROH Supercard of Honor media scrum, Samoa Joe commented on the reports that WWE isn’t interested in signing independent wrestlers following the changes to the NXT brand.
You can check out some highlights from the scrum below:
On WWE not signing independent talent anymore: “You also have to understand the major shift was mainly because many of the better independent wrestlers are working for AEW. So I mean, let’s just be honest here, when we were tapping into a market and looking for new athletes when I was with WWE at the time, when the markets tapped, you try to find a new market. That really was probably a lot of the appetence why they chose to switch directions so if there’s not a lot of gold in the well, you start digging somewhere else.”
On being excited to work in AEW: “I’m more than excited, these are the environments that I love. A lot of guys, they get to a certain point in the industry, they don’t want to put themselves in situations where they’ve got young hungry guys wanting to come up and tear their throat out for a spot. I’ve never had an issue with that and it’s a major reason why I’m here. Talking with Tony, I understand the lay of the land and the athletes that have been attracted to AEW and ROH. I knew that it was a place that I wanted to be. A lot of familiar faces, a lot of new burgeoning stars that are coming into their own and these are the environments that I thrive in. When I came into NXT it was very much the same thing, when I came into WWE, everywhere I go I’m searching out for those types of matchups and those types of individuals. AEW is flush with them and ROH is flush with them and now I have this grand opportunity to pursue those targets on both brands.”
