Samoa Joe had been working behind the announce desk for WWE since suffering two concussions in early 2020. One occurred during an eight-man tag match on Raw, and the other was less than a month later after hitting his head on a table during a commercial shoot. While his announcing work had been highly praised when WWE made changes to their commentary teams due to the hiring of former ESPN host Adnan Virk, Joe was left without a role. WWE seemingly saw him as surplus to requirements, with him no longer required on commentary and unable to wrestle, they released him in April.
Speculation has now begun that Joe could be set to make a return to the company after Fightful revealed he was seen at the WWE Performance Center last week. The belief is that some within WWE are pushing for him to be rehired Joe and become part of their NXT brand as an in-ring competitor. If that is the case, it would indicate he has either been medically cleared to resume wrestling or is expected to be soon.
Joe initially wrestled as part of NXT without a contract, making his debut at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable in May 2015, having a faceoff with Kevin Owens. He continued to make indie dates but was offered an exclusive WWE contract due to impressive merchandise sales and became exclusive to WWE in August. While in NXT, he’d twice hold the brand’s championship and was called up to the main roster in 2017 as part of WWE’s Raw brand. During this time, he would achieve his career-high by challenging Brock Lesnar twice in pay-per-view main events for the Universal Championship.
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