Samoa Joe is one of the long-time veterans in the world of professional wrestling. He made his mark in the business during his time in Total Non-Stop Impact Wrestling (TNA), currently known as Impact Wrestling. His huge success in the company earned him a call from WWE. In 2015, Joe made his debut in NXT, later he moved up to the main roster. After 6 years with the company, Samoa Joe was released in April 2021. Shortly after, he was re-hired by Triple H and returned to NXT. Unfortunately, in early January, Samoa Joe was let go from the company yet again. Why was Samoa Joe fired from WWE twice in just under a year?
A short look at Joe’s accolades within WWE
The ‘Samoan Submission Machine‘ made his mark since his arrival on NXT. Very shortly he won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic teaming with Finn Balor. In 2016, Joe defeated Finn Balor to win the NXT Championship for the first time in his career. Joe won his second NXT championship the same year.
Later, Joe got called up to the main roster. One of the noteworthy feuds in the main roster was against AJ Styles and then another one was Brock Lesnar. Joe won the United States Championship twice during his time in the main roster. Later in 2021, Joe returned to NXT and that was where he won the NXT Championship for the third time. Joe is the only person to do so. Within weeks after his championship triumph, Joe was forced to relinquish his title due to an injury during training. Joe was then released from the company in January 2022.
Why was Samoa Joe released from WWE twice?
Two weeks after WrestleMania 37, WWE decided to release several superstars from the company. The name included top names such as Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Braun Strowman, Mickie James and many more. Joe was also part of this list. Although it was claimed to be ‘budget cuts‘ it is speculated that the new management was focused on enjoying the shares themselves. Former WWE superstars like Lio Rush, all called out WWE over this. Also, WWE’s stocks were only rising amidst the budget cuts.
But they had to release hundreds of people because of budget cuts… lol https://t.co/DSwFHowoXZ
— Lio Rush (@IamLioRush) April 2, 2021
Samoa Joe spent most of 2021 as a commentator. Since he suffered several concussions, he was not cleared to wrestle. So, other than the ‘budget cuts‘ WWE had another reason to release him. WWE COO Triple H on the other hand was not too happy about this. Moments after Joe was released, Triple H contacted him with a job offer. That was how Joe’s second coming came about.
Late last year, Triple H suffered a cardiac arrest. It was reported to be life-threatening. Luckily, Triple H thrived. But, due to the doctor’s order, Triple H was asked to take some rest at home. During this time, WWE made a lot of changes to NXT. NXT became NXT 2.0, Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard took over and the new management seems to openly show their unliking to Triple H’s methods. It was also reported that the new NXT logo was designed without any input from Triple H.
Samoa Joe’s second firing also seems to be another plan to eradicate ‘Team Triple H‘ as not only Joe but also Backstage producer Road Dogg and William Regal were also released.
So the releases seem to be another direct attack on Triple H and have nothing to do with the people released. For years, the ‘main roster‘ management has shown their disliking towards Triple H, with the top NXT stars getting ruined on the main roster and many more. These are speculation, nothing has been confirmed.