Former TNA star Samoa Joe signed with WWE recently. He made his debut with the company last week at WWE NXT Takeover: Unstoppable. His debut brought a ton of cheers into the Full Sail Live Arena, but social media also exploded with people talking up Samoa Joe. Joe’s debut did more for NXT than most realized it would, and WWE was really happy to see that.
Many wondered what sort of contract Samoa Joe signed with WWE. Apparently, it is quite an interesting one. According to The Wrestling Observer, Joe can take Indy dates just about anywhere he wants, but WWE is of course priority. Joe can work some TV with places as well, as long as it is regional and not national. Joe’s deal is non-exclusive, so he has very few restrictions.
While Joe has signed a deal with WWE that is not exclusive, WWE does have the right to sign him to a full time deal at any time they wish.
Joe’s deal with WWE included a new t-shirt, which sold out of it’s initial stock immediately. On top of that, he gets to use his “Samoa Joe” name, particularly because he’s not appearing on the main roster WWE television programming at this point. Even if WWE does choose to use him on the main roster, they are pretty confident that they will be the last place Samoa Joe will work full-time television. So they can use him for a while.
His deal also included limited dates with NXT, but that may have changed. NXT tapes their month’s worth of shows in a couple days usually around the first of a month. So Joe’s dates with NXT are limited like everyone else’s most likely.
Samoa Joe originally gave word that he would not take any bookings after April, which was due to him potentially working with WWE. However, once he reached the deal he did with them, he started to take other bookings. He was originally going to work with ROH in September before the deal with WWE was made, and once Joe gave word that he can take bookings, a lot moved up. This is why Samoa Joe will work the 6/20 ROH taping in New York.
At the time, very few knew that ROH was discussing a national television deal with Destination America. That said, while Samoa Joe would have worked the ROH taping before….he may be pulled from the event by WWE. ROH was a regional show that some states were able to get, but now that they are on a national network, WWE may not allow him to work that taping or any others with ROH that plan to have televised.
On top of this, Samoa Joe recently had talks with New Japan Pro-Wrestling about coming in for a bit. Due to the fact that so many places seem to want to use him, and many would try to use him on tapings….WWE may end up offering him a full-time deal. This just to keep him with WWE and out of the Indies where he could very well get hurt and ruin some NXT storylines.
Samoa Joe’s deal with WWE is quite unique, but WWE may end up going ahead with a regular deal simply because there is a lot of risk on the deal he has now. Unlike with Rhyno who has a similar deal with WWE, Samoa Joe clearly has a bigger deal and WWE can use him in bigger ways at this point in his career where as Rhyno’s is beginning to come to an end. So don’t be surprised if we see a new deal for Joe and see him pulled from events soon.
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