NXT Champion Samoa Joe spoke with NOLA to promote Saturday’s NXT live event in New Orleans, LA at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Here are the highlights.
On Shinsuke Nakamura: I’ve known Shin since he first started in wrestling, and his accolades speak for themselves. He’s reignited any company he’s ever been with, and coming into NXT, he’s definitely added a lot of flame to our fire. But he says he’s the King of Strong Style. When you look at the history of wrestling and you see who brought the techniques and the style that was so prolific in Japan here to the United States, it was me. … For him to say he’s the King, by default, that makes me the Emperor.”
On joining WWE: “It was something I had resigned myself that if I don’t make it there, it wasn’t meant to be. I never took that as a slight or an insult, I just (knew) there’s a lot more companies in the world that would appreciate my services, and I went full speed ahead and worked. To be here now, it’s a surprise to me as much as anybody. Now that I’m here, I kind of regret my thinking back then because (WWE) is a lot more than I thought it would be. And it’s been a real blast being here.”
Joe also talked about being in NXT and more. You can read the entire interview here.