Samoa Joe Thought About Retiring After WWE, Discusses His Time On Commentary

On a recent episode of The Sessions, Renee Paquette spoke with Samoa Joe about his injuries and his run on commentary for WWE. Joe revealed that he had contemplated retirement before signing to WWE. The Samoan Submission Machine also talked about doing commentary, his respect for Michael Cole, and issues with concussions. Highlights will follow:

On what made him want to sign with AEW: “Oh, all the money they threw at me. Immediately threw all my morals away — no (laughs).”

On thinking about retiring after his second WWE release: “I was legitimately thinking about hanging it up. You know, for health reasons. Still coming off the concussion and still dealing with the hidden effects of that. Getting back in the ring healthy, transitioning back to a physical state where I can *do something* for a good period of time and not want to pass out.”

On the concussion that really put him on the shelf: “[It was] on a commercial shoot, the table didn’t break like it was supposed to. I basically caught two concussions very close together, which is terrible. ”

On how doing commentary allowed him to get healthy: “I did take a year and a half off to do commentary, which helped me tremendously. I do not regret taking that time. I wouldn’t change it for anything. That allowed me to get healthy, get my mind back together. Get back into a place where I felt confident even doing anything physical. I realize that if I would have rushed that, I inevitably would have not returned to the ring at all. I am happy that I handled that well despite wanting to get after it.”

On what he focused on as a commentator: “If anything, the hardest part about commentary is the man in your ear. You can attest to that (laughs). It’s just because he’s very exacting. He wants what he wants. No beef with that, I get it. I just thought about what I would want people to say about me when I was out there. That was my main focal point; if I’m so-and-so, how would I want to be talked about if I was on top, and I was beating up a guy, how would I want that be described? That was the mindset I took into it. I wanted to enhance whatever performer was in that ring. I wanted to enhance how they appeared to the fan.”

On the respect he has for Michael Cole: “I enjoyed it. It was a great time, I was working with great people. Michael Cole is probably a guy that is really unheralded. I gained so much respect for Michael Cole in seeing what he actually does for the company. It goes far beyond the camera. Seeing what he has to put up with, seeing what he has to deal with. I realized this is a man who… anybody else would have broke under the pressure that he’s put under, consistently, week after week after week. He was a big help, too. He fully believed in me, did everything he [could] to put me in the best position he could to help me succeed. He made that transition easy.”

If using any of the above quotations, please credit The Sessions h/t 411mania for the transcription.