8 Things About Samoa Joe's WWE Career That Made No Sense

Samoa Joe was one of the biggest signings by WWE in 2015. Joe spent the next two years working in NXT and won the NXT Championship two times in his career as well before joining the main roster.

RELATED: 10 Backstage Stories About Samoa Joe We Can't Believe

Joe quickly built a loyal fanbase for himself on Raw and was even involved in many big storylines as well. But despite that, he never really achieved true success in contrast to his talent and potential. At times, WWE really messed up with his character and continued doing so for an extended period of time. It seemed the company didn't know how to use him to his potential because his booking sometimes didn't make much sense.

8 Removing Him As A Commentator

Samoa Joe was one of the stars to get released this year in April. This came as a shocker to the WWE Universe because Joe had been getting used regularly as a color commentator. Even at WrestleMania 37, during the rain delay, Joe was there in ponchos listening to Michael Cole crack terrible jokes.

Reportedly, Joe wasn't medically cleared for wrestling at the time of his release, but his work in the commentary should've kept him in WWE at least. The newest addition to Raw's commentary team Advan Virk hasn't proved himself to be a great commentator and Joe was definitely a better candidate for this role than him.

7 Not Winning The Universal Championship

Fans have been saying this for years now that Joe should've won the Universal Title in 2018. He did a promo once on Brock Lesnar that made him look like a legitimate contender for the belt.

It's really a shame that the company didn't make him a new champion at that time. He was one of the finest in-ring workers in WWE and his promo skills were just terrific.

6 The Timing Of His World Title Feuds

Looking back in time, fans would observe that whenever Samoa Joe was in a main-event program for a World Title, the timing was never correct.

RELATED: 10 Worst Things TNA Did With Samoa Joe

His feud with AJ Styles was great at first, but there just was no way WWE would've let a heel beat Styles for the WWE Championship when he had just told AJ's kids he would be their new daddy.

Also during his Universal Championship feud with Lesnar, everyone knew that Roman Reigns was destined to beat The Beast Incarnate in the end. And even in his rivalry with Kofi Kingston, WWE didn't make him a new champion because they wanted Kingston to keep the belt until SmackDown's premiere on Fox.

5 People Wanting A Push For Him

It's not that Samoa Joe isn't a great wrestler, arguably, he's one of the best. But in WWE, you don't get a push just because you're great. And it didn't really help that when the company tried to push Joe, he got injured.

Joe was in multiple main-event feuds over the years, and it shows that WWE trusted him to be capable enough to do a great job in those rivalries. But there wasn't really a time when The Samoan Submission Machine was able to work continuously for months without getting injured. It really made the job hard for WWE as well to push Joe.

4 Won The NXT Title In A House Show

Samoa Joe ended Finn Balor's 292-day NXT Title reign during a house show in Lowell. This came as a surprise because this championship victory was supposed to be a huge thing for Joe.

He went on to have a four-month-long run with the belt, but it would've been much better if the victory had come on an episode of NXT instead of a live event.

3 His Pay-Per-View Win Record

WWE built Joe's character as a threat to other wrestlers. But they really did a terrible job at booking him at pay-per-views. Every time he was involved in a big match, Joe lost. Out of 23 PPVs on the main roster, Samoa only won at three.

RELATED: Samoa Joe's Final 10 WWE Matches, Ranked From Worst To Best

At one point, he had a record of not winning a pay-per-view match (via pinfall of submission) for over 640+ days. It's really hard to take someone seriously if all they do is lose on big events.

2 Vince McMahon Not Wanting To Sign Him

Vince never originally wanted to sign Samoa Joe in a WWE contract. This was confirmed by multiple people including Joe himself. The main reason for this was Joe's look as Vince didn't think he would be a good fit for television.

And McMahon didn't change his mind until Triple H signed Samoa in NXT and he proved his worth. This is crazy because almost everyone who has seen Joe's work has had only good things to say about him.

1 Not Announcing His Suspension Immediately

In February 2020, Twitter account WrestleVotes indicated that Samoa Joe could be the next Superstar to get suspended for violating WWE's wellness policy. But the company kept using him for a few more weeks before officially announcing his suspension. This caused a lot of confusion online.

Many fans believed that some people in WWE already knew about Joe's suspension and that the company was at fault for not immediately announcing his suspension. There were even reports that WWE hadn't even told the creatives about Joe's suspension and they only got to find about that via WWE's website.

NEXT: 5 Reasons Samoa Joe Should Go To AEW (& 5 Reasons Joe Should Return To Impact Wrestling)