Well, there have been critiques in the past that WWE was “killing the business” by taking talent from the independent scene, and one of WWE’s most successful former indie stars has spoken out.

In case you didn’t know…

While Samoa Joe is one of WWE’s top stars just now and looks set for a huge push on SmackDown after making the move to the blue brand during the Superstar Shake-up, it’s easy to forget that he’s a 39-year-old veteran of the business.

Joe looks better than ever and has been making waves on the main roster ever since the Samoan Submission Machine attacked Seth Rollins on Monday Night Raw in January 2017, and had a huge run in NXT beforehand where he was firmly at the top of the card as NXT Champion and in a long-standing rivalry with Finn Balor - but Joe knows how life is outside of WWE.

What’s unique about Samoa Joe is that his name was the very same outside of WWE, he’s one of few talents who was able to keep his original moniker, allowing continuity between his days outside of WWE and within the company.

Samoa Joe has been in the business for 18 years and has wrestled across the globe, notably for Ring of Honour, Pro Wrestling Noah, AAA and TNA among others and, at one point, it had always been thought that he may never come to WWE. Watching Joe in the ring now, you’d think he’d always been a part of the company.

The heart of the matter

In a recent interview with Pop Culture, Samoa Joe addressed a “problem” that has been raised on several occasions - if WWE takes its talent from its NXT brand, and its NXT brand takes almost all of its talent from the indies - is WWE a bad thing for pro wrestling in general?

Well, in typical Joe style, he doesn’t mince his words.

Joe essentially pinpoints the actual problem as being professional wrestlers wanting to be paid what they’re worth, and essentially make a living out of what they do.

Joe went on to commend WWE for their strategy, too, saying that’s what makes them the best.

What’s next?

Samoa Joe had a knockdown, drag-out fight with Roman Reigns on WWE’s Backlash pay-per-view and, while Joe had spent some time on the shelf due to a pretty serious injury, the former NXT Champion looks like he hasn’t missed a beat.

Joe is on the SmackDown Live brand and you can watch him in action on Tuesday nights.

Author’s take

I always love hearing from Samoa Joe. He always keeps it real and says exactly what’s on his mind, no filter. He doesn’t mince his words here and, well, it’s pretty hard to argue with him.

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