Samoa Joe was told by Jim Ross that he would never make it into the WWE.
Jim Ross usually has an eye for talent. He’s instrumental bringing in guys like Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista, but Jim Ross has made mistakes in the past. One of them was Samoa Joe. The former AEW World Champion revealed on Marking Out that the former WWE announcer told him straight to his face that he’ll never make it into the WWE.
“When I first got started, Jim Ross told me to my face, ‘You will never work in WWE.’ That wasn’t malicious—it wasn’t a malicious thing. It was just saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is what we’re looking for. You are not it.’”
The key thing is that Ross likely had a mandate from Vince McMahon on the type of guys they should hire. Samoa Joe has always been very talented; he’s great on the mic and in the ring, but he doesn’t have the shape that Vince likes. Thankfully, Ross’ words didn’t discourage Joe from continuing his wrestling career. In fact, those words fired him up to try and make money on the indies.
“And it was one of the most liberating statements that was ever spoken to me. Because then it uncoupled me from sitting there going, ‘I gotta be at every WWE house show that comes through the West Coast, I gotta be there, I gotta shake the hands, I gotta do—’ Instead, I said, ‘Listen, obviously they told me I ain’t gonna make it there, so now all my focus shifts to everywhere else I can make money.’”
Joe worked in TNA, ROH, and so many other indie promotions that helped his value grow over time. By the time he was even approached by WWE in 2015, he was in a strong position to get a better deal for himself.
“I concentrated my efforts on those spaces, and those spaces grew because of the effort that I put into them. Those spaces got better. They got more lucrative. We made more money. And because of that, when I finally started dealing with WWE, I did not do it from a position of weakness—I did it from a position of stability and mutual respect.”
Though Joe’s time in WWE didn’t last long, he surely made one hell of an impression. His feud with Brock Lesnar was top notch, and he’s had great matches with guys like AJ Styles, Rey Mysterio, and Ricochet. It’s a shame that he was released as he still had plenty of gas left in the tank, but at least Joe proved Jim Ross wrong about never getting into the WWE.