UPDATED x3: Samoa Joe Reportedly Signs Full-Time WWE Deal

UDPATE x3: According to Pwinsider.com, Samoa Joe is not booked for tonight’s Smackdown tapings. He is booked to work the upcoming NXT house shows in Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, Ohio.

Joe’s final ROH appearance will be the June 20th match with AJ Styles vs. Daniels and Kazarian. ROH would have kept using Joe while available, but word is that ROH making the jump to Destination America played a part in WWE signing Joe to the full time deal.

Joe will maintain all of his independent dates and finish them out unless a WWE obligation comes up.

UPDATED x2: ROH posted the following on Twitter, confirming that Samoa Joe is still appearing on the June 20th event. He will team with AJ Styles to face Daniels and Kazarian…

6/20 #Aftershock @SamoaJoe @AJStyles vs @FrankieKazarian @facdaniels NYC – Be There Live! Order your tix now! pic.twitter.com/zdZD5ZruE1

— ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) June 2, 2015

UPDATE: PWInsider also reports that Samoa Joe has signed a full-time WWE deal which was influenced by the high merchandise sales for him as well as the fact that Joe’s ROH appearances could be broadcast on Destination America. Joe’s performance at the WWE NXT taping last month also played in.

The site reports that Joe’s NXT contract included a clause allowing WWE to sign him to a full deal. WWE chose to exercise that clause after ROH announced their deal.

There’s no word on what this means for the June 20th ROH taping where Joe was set to team with AJ Styles against Kazarian and Christopher Daniels.

ORIGINAL: PWTorch reports (via PW.net) that Samoa Joe has signed a full-time deal with WWE. The site reports that Joe’s merchandise sales were impressive enough that Vince McMahon and Triple H both pushed to get him signed full-time.

Joe will finish up his current independent dates but will be worked into WWE’s full-time schedule and will either go all-in at NXT or be shifted to the main roster fairly quickly.