10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Samoa Joe

9. WWE Allowed Him To Work For Other Promotions

Samoa Joe
rohwrestling.com

While the 'forbidden door' has seemingly been blown open as All Elite Wrestling continues to work with the NWA, IMPACT Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, AAA and others, WWE is notoriously a closed shop for the most part.

Sure, WWE has set up deals with the likes of wXw, EVOLVE and ICW, yet that's clearly only so that WWE can have content for the WWE Network, whilst also having an 'in' when it comes to the talents of those promotions.

What was most unique about Samoa Joe's early tenure under the WWE banner, though, was in how the one-time ROH World Champion was allowed to take outside bookings during that time.

After making his NXT bow at March 2015's TakeOver: Unstoppable, Joe actually went on to work matches for the likes of House of Glory, Xtreme Wrestling Alliance, Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling, Impact Championship Wrestling, Prairie Wrestling Alliance, All American Wrestling, Preston City Wrestling - and he'd even challenge for Jay Briscoe's ROH World Title just a week after first appearing in NXT!

By August of that year, Samoa Joe would become exclusive to WWE, and he'd go on to win the first of his two NXT Championships the following April.

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Senior Writer
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 dayjob, 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, Jamie Hayer, 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.