10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Samoa Joe
That wet whimper of a final appearance, body issues, and Brock Lesnar battles.
At it stands, Samoa Joe is the hottest free agent in the wrestling industry.
One of the ten names formally released by WWE just over a week ago as of this writing - 15 April, to be precise - the Samoan Submission Machine now finds himself with the wrestling world in the palm of his hand.
A two-time NXT Champion, two-time United States Champion and a Dusty Classic winner, Joe's time under the WWE banner was a fruitful one, yet there's a sense that Vince McMahon's company only scratched the surface with what they could've done with Joe during his six years under contract.
Still, it's not like Samoa Joe will be short of suitors, with him surely having the pick of the promotions when it comes to where he lands next. And what is WWE's major loss, will clearly be someone else's major gain.
As is so often the case with WWE, there are a whole host of things the company would prefer that wrestling fans immediately put out of their mind where it pertains to this former TNA World Champion - and here, then, are ten things WWE is likely eager for you to forget about the ridiculously talented Samoa Joe.
10. WWE Never Saw Samoa Joe Getting To The Main Roster
Despite how much of a big deal Samoa Joe felt like at select times during his main roster WWE run, the Samoan Submission Machine was never originally intended to be anything more than an NXT talent.
As Joe has explained over the years - including on the WWE Chronicle episode centred on him - one of the very first things said to him during his very first meeting with Triple H, was that Vince McMahon would never be interested in moving him to Raw or SmackDown.
Citing how Vince wouldn't be keen to push a wrestler in their late-30s on one of the company's main roster brands, Hunter was nothing if not brutally honest with Joe in that initial meeting.
The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion would clearly prove McMahon wrong, with his work in NXT obviously catching the attention of those in the upper echelon of the WWE food chain. Not just his in-ring ability and character work, mind, for Samoa Joe's first ever WWE t-shirt immediately became one of WWEShop.com's biggest sellers.
At 36 years of age, Joe made his NXT debut at March 2015's TakeOver: Unstoppable show. Two years later, he'd debut on the main roster, laying out Seth Rollins - and proving that WWE's oft-ageist approach is a total load of horsesh*t.