‘The Samoan Submission Machine’ has discussed his future.
Samoa Joe is a legend of professional wrestling. The 46-year-old is a former TNA World Heavyweight, NXT and WWE United States Champion among other accolades, and currently finds himself in AEW as a member of The Opps. Joe’s career spans over 25 years, though he’s now discussed his future and has addressed how often retirement crosses his mind.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Joe was asked whether he thinks about the end of his career. Here, the former TNT Champion said that retirement is probably coming sooner rather than later for him, being keen to not overstay his welcome.
“Yeah, I do a lot. 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.”
-Samoa Joe
On whether he’s eyeing up a date for retirement, Joe said it would be based on when his contract runs out, saying he’d want to explore options as they come.
“No, I think it’s just really based on when my contract runs out. I think exploring those options as they go. 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.”
-Samoa Joe
Joe had a 113-day reign with the AEW World Championship in 2024, adding to his already impressive résumé. As mentioned, he’s currently teaming with both Katsuyori Shibata and Hook as part of The Opps, and last competed on the March 12 edition of Dynamite.
Whenever he does call time on his career, it’s certain that Samoa Joe will go down as one of wrestling’s all-time greats.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Samoa Joe’s in-ring future as soon as we hear more.
H/T to ChrisVanVliet.com for the transcriptions.
