Scott Hall has been hospitalized after suffering a bad fall. Jerry Jarrett posted the following on his Facebook page: “Just got off the phone with my friend Scott Hall. He fell and broke his hip and he’s in the hospital. Prayers will help him recover.”
Samoa Joe had previously won the NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver 36 when he defeated Karrion Kross. With that, he became the first-ever three-time champion. However, he never defended the title and was forced to relinquish the title on September 12 as NXT rebranded to NXT 2.0. due to undisclosed injury. Joe would continue to work behind the scenes at NXT and the WWE Performance Center as a talent scout and coach. He recently talked about what led to him dropping the title and ultimately parting ways with the company. Previously, rumors floated about Joe and Bray Wyatt regarding their possible AEW debut.
WWE had different plans for Samoa Joe
Joe recently spoke on Busted Open Radio about the matter and he explained his decision to drop the NXT Championship. The former WWE United States Champion went on to reflect on his final days of NXT run. He recalled the time when he had tested positive for the virus and how WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had a different direction planned for him. He said:
“I popped for [the virus]. It was the weekend, my wife was making stew and I couldn’t smell it. She said, ‘Wow, doesn’t that smell great.’ I said, ‘No.’ I tested positive on Saturday. By then, Vince wanted to go in a different direction with NXT and he wanted to have the new opening with NXT 2.0 be with a bang and I agreed with him. I said, ‘If that’s the case, this is probably what’s best for what your vision is for this product.'”
He added that he was offered the backstage role to guide the up-and-coming stars to shape up their future in the company. Given that he is a veteran in the industry, it was certainly a suitable role for him. He also recalled working with Matt Bloom to train the young talents:
“I went behind the scenes and started working with talent on a one to one basis, pulling guys individually in open gyms, working with them, and focusing on these new tremendous prospects were brought in and people that were hungry to learn and excited about this newfound opportunity. It was invigorating for me. When you’re working with younger talent that are hungry and want to succeed on a high level, it amps up your spirit. I was delving into that heavily. Working with Matt Bloom on revising things, training techniques, evaluating what we were doing already, and seeing if we could do it better. That was the end of my tenure at WWE,” he said.
Joe was released by WWE on January 6, 2022. He was originally released in April 2021 after working as an announcer on WWE Raw but was re-signed in June, joining NXT. Currently, he is a free agent.
