Samoa Joe’s Status Update After AEW Dynamite

Former AEW World Champion Samoa Joe faced Chris Jericho in a Stampede Street Fight on the latest edition of Dynamite. Samoa Joe won the AEW World Championship from MJF last year at the “World Ends” pay-per-view. Following his title win, Joe defended the title against Hook, Hangman Page, and Swerve Strickland. However, at AEW Dynasty, he faced Swerve Strickland in a singles match, where he lost the title to Strickland.

Following his title loss, Samoa Joe entered into a feud with Chris Jericho and his faction, The Learning Tree. This rivalry also saw Joe teaming up with Hook and Katsuyori Shibata to take on The Learning Tree. This culminated in a trios tag team match where Joe, Hook, and Shibata defeated Chris Jericho, Big Bill, and Jeff Cobb at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door last week.

This week’s AEW Dynamite featured a brutal Stampede Street Fight between Samoa Joe and Chris Jericho. Jericho secured the victory with some surprising assistance. Big Bill and Bryan Keith stepped in for Jericho after HOOK was sidelined by a previous Jericho injury. Notably absent was Katsuyori Shibata.

The match reached a dramatic climax when Big Bill loaded Joe onto a forklift pallet, and Jericho drove him through a wall. Officials rushed to Joe’s aid, forcing the match to be called off. Recent reports reveal the reason behind AEW’s decision to write Samoa Joe off TV through this angle.

Samoa Joe to take break from AEW

Former AEW World Champion Samoa Joe will soon reprise his role as the villainous clown Sweet Tooth in the Twisted Metal series. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer shared on Wrestling Observer Radio that Joe’s temporary break from AEW television is because he is committed to filming the second season of Peacock’s Twisted Metal.

He stated, “He was in the first season of that, what’s the TV show? “Twisted Metal,” I think. And the second season starts filming in a couple of weeks. He’s gonna be filming until, I think, October, maybe. But that’s the deal. It was an injury angle to cover that he’s going to be out of action. So, yep, that’s the situation. So that’s why that whole thing. That’s why he lost the street fight. That’s why he’s doing the injury angle. And then when he comes back, he’s got a built-in grudge with Jericho to come back for.”

Due to Joe shooting the entire summer for the Twisted Metal series, he will likely miss AEW’s upcoming pay-per-view, All In, at Wembley Stadium.