Samoa Joe Details His Decision To Relinquish The NXT Championship Shortly Before Brand's Revamp
Samoa Joe has revealed some details regarding the decision to have him relinquish the NXT Championship just a few days prior to the relaunch of WWE's developmental brand.
Joe opened up about NXT's new direction and his subsequent WWE release during a recent chat with the lads over at Busted Open Radio. Joe revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after winning the NXT title at TakeOver 36 last August. By the time Joe had recovered, WWE boss Vince McMahon had already set the NXT revamp plans in motion, meaning that Joe's days as champ were numbered ... although Joe agreed with Vince's decision.
"Vince wanted to go in a different direction with NXT, and he wanted to have the new opening with NXT 2.0 be with a bang and I agreed with him. I said, 'If that's the case, this is probably what's best for what your vision is for this product,'" Joe said, adding that he transitioned into a backstage role after relinquishing the gold."I was delving into that heavily. Working with Matt Bloom on revising things, training techniques, evaluating what we were doing already, and seeing if we could do it better. That was really the end of my tenure at WWE,"he said.
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Samoa Joe and several of his colleagues were laid off by WWE as a result of budget cuts necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic back in April 2021. Soon after Joe was released, rumors began to swirl that he had been re-hired almost immediately. The rumors proved to be true when Joe made his shocking return to NXT last June.
Joe became the first and only three-time NXT Champion when he defeated Karrion Kross at TakeOver 36 last August. Three days later, he was forced to relinquish the gold due to injury and was released by WWE (for the second time) on January 6.
Joe's tenure at WWE was plagued by injuries and inconsistent booking, but he's now a free agent, and we can't wait to see what's next for the veteran.
