Remember when Samoa Joe was supposed to stay in NXT?

During an interview with Drew Garabo Live, Samoa Joe passed along the reminder that he was originally signed to a deal that would have saw him stay in NXT forever:

"The initial deal on the table, it was a little bit of a low offer, but it was a foot in the door. No, financially, it was actually great, but as far as opportunity, it was a lowball offer. He did take care of me in that aspect, which is much appreciated. He told me from the get that, 'we're probably only going to be used in NXT. You're in your 30s. Vince [McMahon] really isn't interested in bringing those guys up right now.' And that was the edict at the time, 'if you're over this certain age, we're not interested in bringing you to RAW or SmackDown. We're trying to build new talent.' But to me, I already had a pretty good career. It was just kind of an opportunity to stay going. It was a merch deal, which they do so much distribution I was with, and I said, 'yeah, sure.' And within I believe a week-and-a-half, I was offered a main roster contract and continued to work in NXT with later moving onto RAW after we build the brand up."

It’s really quite something that despite a long career showing just how good he can be, WWE still lowballed Joe on its initial offer and told him to expect to stay in NXT. He would go on to have a couple of epic feuds, including becoming the first two-time champ in NXT history, before moving up to the main roster and quickly working his way up to the main event for a fun program with Brock Lesnar.

Not bad for a guy who was supposed to be in “developmental” forever because he was too old when he was first signed.

HT: Wrestling Inc