Update On Samoa Joe Working Full Time With WWE

More WWE dates for Joe as he helps build the NXT brand.

By John Canton /

The relationship with Samoa Joe and WWE has changed so much in the past few weeks, but we know that he is set to go full time later this year. According to the Wrestling Observer, the move that caused WWE to sign Joe to a full time deal was Ring of Honor debuting on Destination America. Since WWE is currently featuring Joe on NXT, they didn't want him competing on a cable TV show. Starting in September, Joe will be full time with WWE. In addition to the ROH deal, WWE signed Joe full time because there isn't as much star depth on WWE's NXT brand right now. Since Sami Zayn and Hideo Itami got hurt, plus Kevin Owens got promoted to the main roster, it has left WWE in a bit of a hole for main eventers. They can use Joe as a top level star on the NXT brand for a few months while they build up others and bring in talent from elsewhere.
Joe will be wrestling on three Florida NXT live events on June 11 in Pittsburgh, June 12 in Cleveland and June 13 in Columbus. It's really important for WWE's NXT brand to do well outside of Florida because then it will lead to more NXT live events across America and around the world. Joe still has bookings with independent wrestling organizations into early August, but he informed others through his agent that he won't be taking any bookings after that. If you're going to an indy with Joe on it, you better pay for a photo or autograph too because once this indy run is over he may not be working an indy for a long time. He worked a dark match prior to Raw this week against Tyson Kidd. He wasn't at the Smackdown tapings on Tuesdays. No word on if he'll be at TVs yet.There's still no definite news on when Joe might get called up to the main roster. He may even undergo a name change if he is called up, but that seems pretty unnecessary considering how well he's done as Samoa Joe prior to his WWE career and they are using that name in NXT as well. For now, Joe is a WWE NXT superstar, but as we've seen with Kevin Owens you never know when that might change in an instant if the main roster creative team has something for him.