Just a few short weeks after Samoa Joe returned from a thumb injury, the former NXT Champion found himself back on the injury report after this week’s Monday Night Raw. Joe was competing for the Raw Tag Team Championships alongside Kevin Owens during the episode, but midway through the match he landed awkwardly after hitting a tope onto Buddy Murphy. WWE‘s medical trainers quickly pulled him from the match, leaving Owens to try and fght by himself, and information regarding Joe’s status was scarce.
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However, Dave Meltzer was able to report on Wrestling Observer Radio after the show that Joe is reportedly dealing with a concussion.
“The belief is that Joe has a concussion which is obviously not a good thing,” Meltzer said. “That’s not 100%, but that was the belief a couple of hours ago. A concussion is the kind of unpredictable injury where you know he could be back next Monday or he could be back in six months you just don’t know.”
As of of Tuesday morning, Joe hasn’t said anything about the injury on social media.
The injury bug has started to make its way around the WWE locker room over the past few days. NXT UK’s Alexander Wolfe was knocked out during Saturday night’s Worlds Collide event, and AJ Styles reportedly suffered a separated shoulder during the Men’s Royal Rumble match on Sunday.
United States Champion Andrade was also “injured” on Raw when Humberto Carrillo hit him with a DDT on a concrete floor, though it was later learned that he was actually being written off of television due to a WWE Wellness Policy suspension.
Back in September Joe appeared on the Gorilla Position podcast and talked about why he hasn’t reached world champion status yet in WWE.
“You know what, honestly, time and where we’re at in the story. In terms of what the future holds I’m pretty confident about it. Let me put it this way, I’ve faced a lot worse odds in overcoming things and I’m pretty confident of overcoming this one.”
“I look at it like this as in terms of importance there are two varieties of it,” he later said. “There’s what’s important to me and there’s what’s important to my legacy, which includes what the fans think. For my legacy and for what the fans who have followed me throughout my career, it’s very important. For me personally, I find a great amount of enjoyment in what I do. I’m able to do what I do around the world, this is my dream job and I love it. That being said, it’s also very important to me, damn it. Are you crazy? Of course, it’s important to me and my legacy. It’s important to both.”
