Samoa Joe on How He Helped Get John Cena Hired By WWE

– Samoa Joe recently spoke with 102.5 The Bone’s Drew Garabo Live (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Helping John Cena Get Hired by WWE: “Actually, John Cena’s match with me, the one that kind of got him hired with WWE, I remember they were there to look at John, obviously. He looked great, he was like the blue-chipper, and John was a good friend of mine, so I had no problem whatsoever helping him kind of highlight and do his thing. Hey man, he was a hard worker, man. He got it done, so after the match, I remember Jim Ross, head of Talent Relations at the time, I went up to him and I was like, ‘is there any interest over here?’ ‘Ah, no, son. I don’t think you’re quite going to work out here.’ Two years in, but it was cool because I was like, ‘well, if I can’t go there, I’m going to focus on all this other stuff. Where else can you make money? Oh, Japan!’ So I focused on Japan, I got a contract over there, and the rest is history.”

On How He Got Hired By WWE: “Yeah, [Triple H] made the call, so I give him a ton of credit for me being with WWE because he was my contact point. Really, it was a bunch of dudes. It was Paul Heyman; it was Road Dogg; it was Joey Mercury. Really, it was a laundry list of people who were with the company who worked with me throughout my [pro wrestling] career.”

On His Initial WWE Deal: “The initial deal on the table, it was a little bit of a low offer, but it was a foot in the door. No, financially, it was actually great, but as far as opportunity, it was a lowball offer. He did take care of me in that aspect, which is much appreciated. He told me from the get that, ‘we’re probably only going to be used in NXT. You’re in your 30s. Vince [McMahon] really isn’t interested in bringing those guys up right now.’ And that was the edict at the time, ‘if you’re over this certain age, we’re not interested in bringing you to RAW or SmackDown. We’re trying to build new talent.’ But to me, I already had a pretty good career. It was just kind of an opportunity to stay going. It was a merch deal, which they do so much distribution I was with, and I said, ‘yeah, sure.’ And within I believe a week-and-a-half, I was offered a main roster contract and continued to work in NXT with later moving onto RAW after we build the brand up.”

On His Merch Selling Out So Quickly leading to an Exclusive Deal: “It definitely does. I know after that happened, the phone call was, ‘yeah, we need you to be signed exclusively immediately.’ Obviously, it plays a big part and if there’s a fanbase there, especially, if you want to vote, it’s the economy. You vote with your dollars. People were excited I was there. It makes a big difference.”