SAMOA JOE dropped the title due to covid positive test

[Comrade Khan]

Per fightful / busted open

> "I popped for COVID. It was the weekend, my wife was making stew and I couldn't smell it. She said, 'Wow, doesn't that smell great.' I said, 'No.' I tested positive on Saturday. By then, Vince wanted to go in a different direction with NXT and he wanted to have the new opening with NXT 2.0 be with a bang and I agreed with him. I said, 'If that's the case, this is probably what's best for what your vision is for this product.' I went behind the scenes and started working with talent on a one to one basis, pulling guys individually in open gyms, working with them, and focusing on these new tremendous prospects were brought in and people that were hungry to learn and excited about this newfound opportunity. It was invigorating for me. When you're working with younger talent that are hungry and want to succeed on a high level, it amps up your own spirit. I was delving into that heavily. Working with Matt Bloom on revising things, training techniques, and evaluating what we were doing already and seeing if we could do it better. That was really the end of my tenure at WWE,"

 

[Comrade Khan]

So he was never hurt

 

[Chris]

Explains why he was so hush hush about it lmao they really just saw the excuse to get him off TV, fuckin vultures

The stew bit is hilarious tho just imagining Joe telling that part

 

[Comrade Khan]

Pretty sketchy stuff imo but this further shows how much of a godamn professional Joe is

 

[Comrade Khan]

Now buy roh n bring him in TK.

 

[Chris]

Yeah seems he saw the writing on the wall and it wasn't worth a fuss to him. Tbh the Kross match while fine IMO, was probably not up to Joe's own personal standards and it coulda disheartened him about a return too, hopefully not tho

 

[Dale]

Super unfortunate timing for him but I do understand it a bit given the rebranding and starting off with a bang. Could have been fun seeing him mix it up with the new guys for a few months though like Ciampa has been.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Yeah seems he saw the writing on the wall and it wasn't worth a fuss to him. Tbh the Kross match while fine IMO, was probably not up to Joe's own personal standards and it coulda disheartened him about a return too, hopefully not tho

With how things turned out its also possible him n Kross saw the writing on the wall n neither were overly motivated going in? Surely the changes were talked about b4 Joe won ?

Hard to say. We're the rest of Kross defences bangers in comparison?

 

[Chris]

With how things turned out its also possible him n Kross saw the writing on the wall n neither were overly motivated going in? Surely the changes were talked about b4 Joe won ?

Hard to say. We're the rest of Kross defences bangers in comparison?

He didn't have many but I had no issues with him in-ring, my only real issue with the Joe match was that Joe kept having to pull his pants up as well thay was ridiculously distracting

 

[Comrade Khan]

He didn't have many but I had no issues with him in-ring, my only real issue with the Joe match was that Joe kept having to pull his pants up as well thay was ridiculously distracting

Oh no...that legit is the worst. Super distracting. As an example I remember watching 2-3 QT Marshall matches last year n in every single one of them he's pulling n fiddling with his trunks' drawstring

 

[Cwalker]

The Stew part is indeed hilarious.

But like has been said, they were going in a different direction anyway so what’s the point in fussing?

I’m just really surprised they didn’t keep him on as a trainer. From this interview, seemed like he would’ve enjoyed it

 

[Chris]

I haven't decided if this is better or worse than the personal theory I had that there wasn't any reason and they just decided to take the belt off of him for the fresh 2.0 start. I wonder if he was originally gonna drop to Breakker instead of ciampa getting the second reign

 

[Dale]

I haven't decided if this is better or worse than the personal theory I had that there wasn't any reason and they just decided to take the belt off of him for the fresh 2.0 start. I wonder if he was originally gonna drop to Breakker instead of ciampa getting the second reign

I'd imagine so. Would be a bit weird to pull it from him just to put it on another vet. I would have hoped Ciampa would have stayed involved in the storyline that followed but man, Joe being involved in the Black & Gold vs 2.0 feud would have been nice.

 

[Cwalker]

I’m fine with the way things played out. Ciampa fits the “final boss” of the Black and Gold more than Joe does.

But a Joe/Baby Steiner match would’ve been fun