Details on When Talent Knew of Samoa Joe’s WWE Release, Joe’s Role In WWE After Injury

A new report has additional details on Samoa Joe’s WWE release including when talent knew about it, what Joe had been doing in the company and more. As previously reported, it was confirmed on Thursday that WWE had released Joe from his contract as part of the company’s NXT and WWE Performance Center cuts.

Fightful Select reports that talent at the Performance Center found out Joe was exiting the company on yesterday, despite the news not breaking publicly until Thursday.

The site notes that word of his release did make it outside of the company, as it was a former talent who gave them the heads up before WWE confirmed the news to them. There has been no public statement on the release much like most of the others, and though talent and staff have been notifications on the talent relations app previously that hasn’t been the case as of late.

Joe’s release is considered to be a “further dismantling” of the version of NXT that Triple H put together, much like yesterday’s confirmed cuts were. WWE had told Fightful that talent wouldn’t be a part of the cuts in the statement provided yesterday, which strongly indicates that Joe, Timothy Thatcher and Danny Burch all done in terms of in-ring performances for the company.

Staff at the WWE Performance Center indicated that within a few weeks of Joe vacating the NXT Championship and being made inactive, there was little if any talk of him returning to the ring. Joe had settled into his new role as a scout for the company and had helped out with the recent set of tryouts.

Everyone who the site spoke with at the PC believe that he will return to the ring outside of WWE. No word on his no-compete clause terms.

One higher-up in the company said that Joe handled the matter “as professionally as possible, and considering the last few years he’s had here that’s easier said than done.” Fightful says that four longtime independent promoters have already shown interest in booking Joe if he returns to the ring.