Backstage Details On WWE Releasing Samoa Joe

NXT has been going through some major changes ever since the brand was relaunched as NXT 2.0 back in September, and this week WWE released a number of key figures who were involved with the brand including Samoa Joe.

Fightful Select reports that talents actually found out about Samoa Joe’s release on Wednesday, but news of the release didn’t break until Thursday.

Samoa Joe’s WWE release is also said to be considered more of WWE dismantling the NXT brand that Triple H built up. WWE told Fightful that talents would not be part of yesterday’s cuts which seems to indicate that the company considered Samoa Joe to be done with in-ring competition.

Staff at the WWE Performance Center also noted that after Joe relinquished the NXT Championship there was little talk of him returning to the ring once he became inactive. It’s being said that Joe had settled into his new role working as a scout for the company.

Sources at the Performance Center indicated that they believe Joe will be returning to the ring now that he’s done with WWE. There’s no word on his non-compete, but it’s being reported that at least four independent promoters have shown interest in booking Samoa Joe if he does end up returning to in-ring competition.

After news of his release broke Samoa Joe posted the following:

Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.