NXT Superstar Samoa Joe, who is currently the enforcer of NXT General Manager William Regal, recently appeared on Out of Character with Ryan Satin, where he discussed signing with WWE NXT after his brief run with TNA Wrestling.
Samoa Joe said:
“I had left TNA and I was kind of ready for something new.” “I think at that point of my career, I would’ve been if it was a few more years and I would’ve transitioned to some other things I was working on at the time. But I said ‘you know what, why don’t you put out some feelers?’ I remember kind of sending messages through the grapevine through several different intermediaries, through Paul Heyman, through Joey Mercury at the time, through Road Dogg.”
“I asked ‘hey, what would be the interest in me over in WWE?’, which for the most part off had been largely locked off from anybody who hadn’t come up in the system. TNA guys explicitly I think were very much not sought after. It wasn’t an official edict, but I know they were in no rush or they weren’t trying to hire any TNA guys. So it was just kind of a shot in the dark. And within a few minutes I got messages back from all the parties above and they were like ‘Triple H is kind of trying this new idea. NXT is this new thing and you may be a perfect fit here for what we’re looking to do.’ That’s kind of where the discussions started.”
Samoa Joe then talked about how he was told by the WWE that he wouldn't be part of the main roster.
Samoa Joe said:
“The same, if probably a little bit less of a good forecast.” “I think people think I get hurt when I hear that, but I’ve experienced this my entire career everywhere I’ve gone. Everywhere. I give Gabe (Sapolsky) a bunch of guff about this now when I see him, but my initial time in Ring of Honor it was ‘hey, we can’t afford a Californian boy. We’re bringing you in for this one match, it’ll be cool.’ Then we went out there, had one match and then it was like ‘hey, you’re working for us every month, every week. Every time we have a show, you’re on.’”
“TNA, and Dutch Mantel is probably one of my favorite people in life, one of the great characters in wrestling. I remember I’m going to walk out for my match on Impact, my very first match. And he looks me up and goes ‘well son, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Doesn’t look like you’re about to make a good one. Alright, go out there and get them kid.’ I had known Dutch for a little bit, so I’m dying laughing as I walk through the curtain. So being doubted walking through the door is absolutely, I’m numb to it. So even being told that, I’m like ‘that’s great. Cool.’ And once I was in things started changing rapidly. I’m just happy that WWE was willing to change with those thing as they changed rapidly. We went through several contracts in that short amount of time, but we finally got on one we all liked and we went from there.”
Samoa Joe then talked about first meeting Finn Balor and how they always run into each other and when he works alongside Balor, especially during tag matches, he was very excited and it was really a good time.
Samoa Joe said:
“I think it was inevitable and I think we both knew.” “But at the same time we both were very excited to tag with one another. It’s funny because me and Finn, we have been friends for awhile. But it was always kind of friends in passing, because obviously Finn lived and Ireland and was primarily working with New Japan. The first time Finn came to the United States he came to my wedding. I remember Rocky Romero drove him straight from the airport. He told him ‘hey listen. We’re going to a wedding.’”
“First time I’m meeting, he’s partying at my wedding and having a great time. And it was funny, we kept running into each other. I’d be overseas in Japan, we’d have the same sponsors and the same friends and we’d always end up running into each other and having a great time. It was finally fun to get to work alongside of him in the company. And while we were tagging we had a blast. It was just a lot of fun, lot of cool road trips. It was a really good time.”
Samoa Joe then talked about how incredibly charismatic Balor was and that is what made it much easier and better to work with him due to the connection he had with the fans.
Samoa Joe said:
“I mean he’s just incredibly charismatic.” “It makes it easy when you’re in there with him. When he’s on and he’s made that connection with the crowd? To give you an idea, I remember walking out before a TakeOver. I think I was backstage and I think Finn went out first. And the crowd with everything, the lights and I mean, the place was just on fire. And I remember just standing backstage saying ‘oof, follow that kid.’ It was one of the few times, it was such a phenomenon at the time, it was one of the few times where the crowd was 100% in his corner. I remember we had the match in Ireland. You could feel it, it was in the air that night. The hometown boy was going for it. Those experiences I think are my favorite thing about Finn. Just an incredibly charismatic performer and he makes my job easier when he can rile up a crowd and get their ire going. They want the Demon to kick ass.”
