Samoa Joe recently spoke with William Mullally for Al Arabiya English; you can read a few highlights below:
Samoa Joe agrees with Daniel Bryan that the ‘Greatest Royal Rumble’ event could be more important than Wrestlemania:
Yes I do. The fan base is expanding on much more of a global scale, and I think WWE recognizes that we have fans all over the world and we’re adjusting our schedules to accommodate that so we can tour and go out there and see those fans, no matter where they may be. I think the Middle East is a key market for anybody. There’s people there that want to see great entertainment, have a great time. When you come to a WWE event, you see that enough spectacle and you get that type of entertainment. I think it’s very key and very important to the growth of WWE as a whole. I look forward to seeing how the WWE Universe of Saudi Arabia reacts.
Joe comments on Daniel Bryan getting cleared to return:
Obviously whenever you speak of people that you consider friends throughout your career, you always look upon that news with a little bit of trepidation, only because I care about Daniel Bryan’s well-being as a person. I would hate to see anything permanently bad happen to him. At the same time, I know he’s been fighting the fight really hard the past few years, and do everything within his power to medically prove that he’s capable and fit to compete in the ring. Knowing Bryan as long as I’ve known him, if he’s attacked that with the same ferocity that he’s attacked his abilities as a professional wrestler, I have no doubt that he’s ready to get back in that ring and I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s able to do.
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Samoa Joe comments on his plans once he returns from injury:
Obviously I’ll always have my eyes on the Universal championship. It’s something that’s eluded me just barely, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I should be in there beating up Brock Lesnar not Roman. Obviously Roman has been through his trials and tribulations and he’s made a case for being in there, but it’s always hard sitting on the sidelines when you should be in there hitting home runs. We’ll see what transpires.
What NXT stars does Joe want to get called up next?
There’s so many talented individuals down there. Top of the list, obviously the champ [Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas]. He’s a bad dude. He’s proven time and time again that he’s ready to go. If ‘Cien’ wants to bring that 100 up here, I wouldn’t be surprised. Aleister Black I don’t think is any surprise to anybody, he’s a tremendously, unlimitedly talented athlete and I would expect that eyes would be on him sooner rather than later. Velveteen Dream, Lars Sullivan, two tremendous athletes that really caught my eye. I like their style and I like what they’re doing out there. Heavy Machinery and the Authors of Pain, two massive, mean tag teams. They could do a lot in this tag team division. We’ve got guys like the Bludgeon Brothers, the New Day, and the Usos, who are incredible. We’ve got these really great tag teams and these hungry young wrecking crews waiting to come up. I think next year is going to be a very good year for tag team wrestling.
