WWE superstar and former three-time NXT champion Samoa Joe recently appeared on the Kurt Angle Show to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including Joe’s thoughts on the return of CM Punk, as well as how important their trilogy of matches were in the early 2000s. Highlights are below.
Says he knew Punk would make a return to wrestling after his stint on WWE Backstage:
If I know one thing about Punk: if he’s out on something, he’s out on it. You won’t see him being around it, you won’t see him looking at it, you won’t see him staring at it, it’s out of his life and the minute I saw him on the FOX set, I knew his eyes were turning back towards it, and I think he was just looking for the right place at the right time and he wanted to be happy with it and I think he is. From what I’ve seen, I would gather that he is, so I’m stoked for him and I’m happy to see him back.
How important their trilogy of matches were to each man’s career:
Tremendously important for a lot of reasons, both from a career standpoint and from a business standpoint. It was an opportunity to kind of explore bounds that, personally, I’d never really explored before, doing the longer format matches doing the 60-minute matches and got me acquainted to what I was able to do and if I push myself and go out there. It was a great creative effort, you know, anytime you’re in there with Punk, he’s got a tremendously creative mind, great collaborative [effort] going back and forth. It’s always very easy to come up with something great with him. It was a special time and it’s something I really enjoyed, and I definitely do highlight [the trio of matches] as a very important point in my career.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)