Samoa Joe could be hanging up the boots pretty soon.
The former AEW World Champion has talked about retirement in the past and noted that it could be coming sooner than later.
“Yeah, I do a lot." Joe told Chris Van Vliet when he asked if he thought about when his career will end. "It’s probably coming sooner than later, which is fine. I think a lot of people from my generation, from what I’ve seen, if that they have the ability, we’ve done our best to kind of save up and we definitely don’t want to out stay our welcome, because we may have been privy to a few people may have done that in their careers. So I definitely don’t want to be that guy in mind.
I hate just saying retirement, because how many pro wrestling retirements never stick? All of them. So yeah, I will do this for a little longer and then yeah I think the end is probably sooner than any new deal being signed.”
Joe never gave a date or time on when his retirement will take place, but he’s recently given a better description during his interview with Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports, who wanted to see if Joe was sticking to those retirement plans he mentioned back in April.
“I’d say most likely. Honestly, for a lot of reasons, most of them are responsible. You never want to outstay your welcome in this industry. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been involved for 25 years now. The other thing too is, I think many of us want to preserve what we can of our health. It is something that is probably the most likely scenario, but it is an unusual work and unusual opportunities come up, so we’ll see,” he said.
When asked about a possible date, Joe still didn’t have one in mind. In fact, the AEW star could simply wake up one day and decide his time in the ring is over.
“No, not at all. It might be a surprise. It might just be one day I’m gone and we’ll leave it at that. I’m not as ceremonial as everybody else.”
At the moment, there’s no word on when Samoa Joe’s contract ends. Joe signed with AEW in 2022. It’s possible that he signed a five year deal, but again, his contract end date isn’t public knowledge just yet.
Joe is focused on his AEW World title match against Hangman Page this Saturday. Though it will sting to see another veteran of Joe’s nature retire, the guy has been wrestling since 1999 so it’s not exactly the biggest surprise in the world. It’s best to enjoy the final few months (or years) of watching Joe kick some ass left and right in that ring.
The AEW star is making rounds for his upcoming World title match at WrestleDream where he discusses AJ Styles vs. John Cena, his bout against Page, and so much more!