Samoa Joe appeared on “AEW Unrestricted” this week to talk about his early ROH career, signing with AEW and “The Forbidden Door”.
Samoa Joe talking about his early career in ROH:
“I really hit my stride, obviously, with a championship reign there,” he said.
“There was an unbelievable amount of talent crossing over in the promotion, whether they were going up or down, or somewhere in between, or rebounding. I mean, it was such an interesting place in the business at the time, because there really weren’t any alternatives. There was no place outside of WWE to really express yourself, and it was the forerunner of Impact or TNA at the time, and many other promotions to follow.”
On signing with AEW:
“It was a process. My agent and Tony have a relationship of sorts. They’ve been treated before,” Joe revealed.
“They got together exchanging ideas back and forth. Then Tony and I got in touch. Tony has been in contact with me, going out of his way to reach out to me whenever the opportunity presented itself. I had a couple of conversations with Tony and everything went very well.”
Joe giving his opinion on “The Forbidden Door”:
“Maybe my definition of ‘Forbidden Door’ and yours is different, but mine was always WWE, who, that door is not open yet. If you’re talking about co-promoting with New Japan and other promotions and Ring of Honor, fine. But for me, that has never been considered a forbidden door. I co-promoted with Ring of Honor and New Japan years ago. It didn’t go well. It was not a good collaboration. From that experience, it is what I base my experiences on,” shared Samoa Joe.
“Even to this day, when you talk about the forbidden door, I say it from the point of view of where I am and where the people are. The gate that is currently up is what adds value to many of the fighters. For me, although I’ve dealt with Tony and I have a very different feeling now that I’m personally dealing with Tony and talking business about how he handles himself and what his vision is, which is very noble and I’m surprised to hear it but, when promoters start working together, does that usually work for wrestlers? As if I was only speaking from a work point of view.”
“I know this can blow up the narrative, but that’s how I understood it. I’m not on the internet every day picking up all the buzzwords and with the revolution and stuff. I think the discussion between AEW and WWE fans is ridiculous. Look at professional wrestling. You don’t need to dive into this. It’s you taking your ego, and taking something you have nothing to do with, and trying to start a conflict. I mean, watch what you watch, enjoy what you want to enjoy, but hey, I will always be a professional asset to fighters, no matter what.”
“Fighters should get the best price and pay the highest possible, and be valued at the highest level. I will never apologize for that opinion, and I will never retract that opinion. If the guys take that as an opportunity like, ‘Oh, well, now you’re here and now you’ve sold yourself,’ no, my opinion remains the same.”
“As far as I can see, that door is still open. But there are benefits to that door being up and there are benefits to that door being open. The door can be opened, but there has to be a lot of changes in the whole industry before I feel comfortable with it as an artist, and from my point of view as an artist who has been in this business, who has actually dealt with finances. , and he knows what this business is about. I mean, I know you have your glorified view of what this war is. You think we line up on each side, but the real war is us trying to entertain you, not this ridiculousness between you guys.”
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