10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About 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.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 23rd Apr 2021

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