AEW superstar and current reigning ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe recently joined the New York Post for an in-depth interview about his time in WWE, as well as his thoughts on challenging MJF for the AEW world championship at tomorrow’s Dynamite Grand Slam event. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On dealing with a lot of injuries during his run in WWE:
I think with life experiences as such, an amount of appreciation comes anytime you get close to maybe being forced to hang it up before possibly you want to when you incur an injury like that (concussion) that could sideline you potentially for your career. You definitely cherish the wins a little bit more, especially at this stage of my career. I think it’s only made me a little bit more brazen, excited about what’s possible going forward.
On being in a world championship feud in AEW:
It’s unusual. I think when you look at the breadth of my career, to me I’m never surprised. This is what you set out to do. These are the expectations I put on myself. I’ve been counted out. I think I’m on my third one now, legitimately as far as it’s done, over with. As long as we keep moving forward, keep finding ways to entertain fans, I’ll be out here doing my thing with the same expectations. Not surprised at all we are where we are.
Talks working with MJF and how the backbone of their feud is something minor that happened in NXT:
I don’t think we necessarily had to get to it through that meme or avenue because I think he’s a very talented individual, much like myself. I think we have an innate ability to go out and pick a fight no matter what the circumstances are. It obviously was something that stuck out in a lot of peoples’ minds. I knew for a lot of people it was a funny iconic moment. Why fight the flow.
MJF recently hyped up his showdown with Joe by posting on X (Twitter.) Check out what the world champ had to say by clicking here.