Samoa Joe Told Not to Expect WWE Main Roster Callup

Samoa Joe is undoubtedly one of the most talented and accomplished pro wrestlers in the history of the pro wrestling world and his time in WWE has been a great one, which has seen Joe win the NXT Championship and also titles on the main roster.

Samoa Joe would make his debut in NXT back in 2015 after he parted ways with TNA Wrestling that year. He became one of the mainstays of the black and gold brand in no time.

While speaking on the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin, Samoa Joe was asked if he, just like Kevin Owens, was told to not get his hopes up about being called up to the main roster when he signed with WWE. Samoa Joe would confirm the fact but it didn’t bother him as he was used to something like this.

“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.’

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“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.”

After spending a few years in the main roster, Samoa Joe made his return to NXT last month as William Regal’s enforcer. We will have to see how Samoa Joe will safe in his new role as an enforcer in WWE NXT.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.