WWE News: Samoa Joe opens up about his decisions to join the company
The 78th episode of Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast featured the brand new NXT Champion, Samoa Joe. The interview was conducted before Samoa Joe won the championship from Finn Balor, earlier this week. As stated by wrestlinginc.com, below are the highlights from the podcast :
About his journey to NXT and the experiences :
"I've been fortunate enough that I'm kind of on the cusp of companies coming, getting worldwide acclaim. And this is kind of like my third time and it's awesome, so I recognize all the hallmarks, all the signs, I've seen before, kind of like Ring Of Honor and it's like, when I saw that and I saw the energy and the vibe when I went to the [NXT] shows and kind of met with some of the guys and saw how they felt about things, I was like,'yeah, I'm totally cool with it - this is where I want to be'."
Reasons behind his decisions to sign with WWE, influence of Seth Rollins, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan’s WWE success :
"It's crazy because it was never a timetable issue for me. First of all, all those guys are really good friends of mine, so it was like, I was beyond stoked for them. I was like, 'man, that's awesome, man! I understood what they brought to the table, and I'd been in the ring with them, traveled the roads with them, so I knew what they were capable of and I knew their ability level. And to see them be WWE Champion just reinforced what I had already believed about them." Joe continued, "when the opportunity presented itself here, I felt more confident. Like, if that hadn't happened before I came here, I'd probably be more apprehensive about coming to WWE because it's like the place to be,”
His influence on current roster:
"I've been able to, I hope, have some influence on some of my friends being here, AJ [Styles], [Shinsuke] Nakamura, who I remember when he first started in the L.A. dojo with me and in the Inoki Dojo in Santa Monica [California] and to see him debuting here [at NXT TakeOver: Dallas] is crazy."