Samoa Joe had been working on commentary 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 announce teams due to the hiring of former ESPN host Adnan Virk this week, Joe was left without a role.
Yesterday he, along with nine other wrestlers, were released from their WWE contracts. It has now been reported by Fightful Select that the former two-time NXT Champion was still not medically cleared to compete at the time of his release. With him no longer needed behind the announce desk and unable to wrestle, WWE seemingly saw him surplus to requirements.
It isn’t known if his medical status will cause him issues returning to the ring when his 90-day non-compete clause expires. WWE and their doctors are known to be extremely cautious nowadays with head injuries, so potentially a non-WWE-associated doctor may clear him in the future.
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