Backstage News On Samoa Joe's WWE Release

The news of Samoa Joe being released by WWE for the second time in 12 months was shocking, yet predictable, with another one of the original NXT core players axed from his backstage talent scouting role.

With many seeing this latest round of cuts - which included the likes of William Regal and Road Dogg amongst others - as WWE higher ups getting rid of ‘Triple H’s guys’, Joe’s release seemed inevitable to many as Triple H was believed to have pushed for his re-signing in 2021.

Now a report from Fightful Select has shed some more light on Joe’s exit, with those at WWE’s Performance Center informed of Joe’s release on Wednesday before the news was publicly broken on Thursday. Some sources had tipped Fightful off ahead of the matter, with many believing that if William Regal were ever to be let go then Joe would surely follow, as the two worked closely as talent scouts.

The report also states that there was chatter in the Performance Center after Joe’s NXT in-ring return, title win, and subsequent stripping, with sources saying that despite Joe settling well into his new scouting role they "found it shocking that Joe wasn't cleared and was relegated to announcing on the main roster, was re-hired, cleared to wrestle, then not cleared again" with no-one having hope of seeing Joe wrestle in a WWE again.

Those close to the situation have indicated that they wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe make an in-ring return somewhere outside of WWE, although details of a no-compete clause are unknown at this time.