Samoa Joe on His Rise to the Main Roster, NXT and More

Samoa Joe traps Brock Lesnar in the Coquina Clutch: Raw, June 26, 2017

Joe is gonna interview. This Sunday, Samoa Joe will be challenging Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at “Great Balls of Fire”. While the odds seem to suggest that Lesnar will retain, Samoa Joe has been quite the refreshing challenger in the last few weeks. Now he’s getting the attention that he’s deserved for a long time.

Samoa Joe recently spoke with ESPN.com for a new interview before his match with Lesnar. The interview covers a variety of topics, including his rise from NXT to the main roster, how quickly he was put in the main event scene, and the most important thing in wrestling. Here are some highlights:

On His Rise from NXT

“After I made my initial debut at NXT TakeOver, they looked at the interest and merchandise sales and decided I would be better signed full time than not. I had a pretty full calendar regardless, so for me there wasn’t much of an inherent risk in originally signing because there was other work in place if they didn’t sign me full time. But it didn’t surprise me when it happened as fast as it did.”

On Quickly Moving to the Main Event Scene

“There’s no timeline you can put on these things, but that I’m in the main event this quickly is a welcome surprise — but it’s not a surprise that it has happened. When you look around and see how many people I’ve worked with in former companies that are here now, it’s not surprising. Talent is one of the few things that can’t be created. It can be enhanced, it can be coached and brought out of people, but you can’t deny it.”

And on the Importance of Timing

“Some people want to be called up as quickly as possible, but I’ve been around the industry long enough to know that timing is one of the most key and important things. Brock was at the top of my list of guys that I wanted to work with. There are certain special guys in this industry and Brock is one of those special guys, and to be able to go out there and work with guys like that, that’s where legacies are built.”

You can read the full interview here.

Opinion: I know it’s been said many times but there’s something inherently interesting about Samoa Joe that just draws you to him. Every time I see him, I instantly buy that he really is the monster that he’s built up to be. You don’t see that very often and Samoa Joe is one of the few that makes it feel genuine.

Do you see Samoa Joe winning the Universal Title? Where do you see him going after facing Brock Lesnar? Let us know in the comments below.