Samoa Joe on Vince McMahon’s perception of NXT, going through The Forbidden Door

In an interview with French YouTuber Hal, Samoa Joe covered some familiar ground, and hit on a couple of hot pro wrestling topics.

Something there’s been a lot of speculation about in light of NXT’s upcoming rebrand, he was asked about Vince McMahon’s thoughts on the wing of WWE Joe was re-signed to work with on camera and behind-the-scenes:

“I think he perceives it as the future of his company. I think that he’s heavily invested in it. It’s funny, you know, I read all this stuff that I hear from people... At the same time, he’s probably the biggest proponent of its existence, and much of what has happened in it thus far.

“NXT - it’s the future of WWE, and it’s a big reason why I’m excited to be kind of associated with it. Because I get to delve into the future. I get to work on new things and new projects and introduce new stars in the world. And that’s something that, at this point in my career, I’m very, very excited to.”

It’s a mostly political answer that doesn’t contradict any of the reports that McMahon is the driving force behind the overhaul of NXT and WWE’s developmental program. It is nice to hear Joe is onboard with that (even though if he wasn’t, he probably doesn’t have a ton of options).

Speaking of politics, Joe was asked about the possibility he could use The Forbidden Door to return to Impact. Some reports of WWE having Daniel Bryan Danielson-centered discussions with New Japan earlier this year, it’s a pretty out there question. But Joe has a thoughtful answer. And it gives him a chance to deliver a classic Joe line:

“The Forbidden Door thing, I think it’s just more of like - I work for a company. If I played for a major football club in the world, you wouldn’t lend me out on the weekend to go play for the rival team. Messi isn’t doing day shifts over at Manchester United, you know? And really, I understand some fans want for that, and they want to see that. But at the same time, just with the whole politics of that type of situation, it wouldn’t be a good outcome anyways, if we really spoke about it. Nobody wants to look bad in that situation, everybody’s gonna be pushing and pulling this way, and it just becomes kind of a convoluted mess.

“If guys want to show up and they want to get down with Samoa Joe? Then get on my level, get out here, come find me - let’s do this... I ain’t making house calls right now.”

Make an office appointment, jabronies.

Joe also says a return to Raw or SmackDown “is always in the cards.” You can check out his whole conversation on SO CATCH with Hal here.