What Happened To Samoa Joe In AEW? | AEW News
Hook has led AEW faction The Opps during Samoa Joe's absence, but...where is he?!
Fightful Select is reporting why Samoa Joe has been absent from AEW television lately. The promotion itself did reveal that Joe is out of action after suffering a "non-contact" injury, but there's more to it than that. According to Fightful, the former 2-time AEW World Champion is on the bench after being placed in concussion protocol.
The website doesn't know how long Joe will be out of action or what the severity of his concussion issues are though. They do, however, know that Andrade was slotted in when the Samoan stalwart went AWOL from programming. It's believed that Joe was actually supposed to stick around in the World Title picture for a while longer.
He dropped the belt to MJF at Worlds End on 27 December 2025, so there's a chance that Tony Khan would've booked some sort of rematch heading into early 2026. That sadly hasn't been possible due to Joe's head injury. In the interim, Hook has been presented at the leader of The Opps whilst Joe recovers away from the cameras.
Fightful also reported that AEW chiefs are happy with how Andrade has fared near the top of the tree since putting his WWE ties to bed.
Again, there's no word on exactly when Samoa Joe could or will return to episodes of Dynamite and Collision. Concussions are obviously no joke, and it's a good thing that Khan is taking this so seriously. Joe's long term health is the priority here, clearly. All booking plans can wait until he's 100% healthy.
All the best to Joe as he recuperates.