Samoa Joe's WWE Career Hits an Unfortunate Milestone

Samoa Joe's last match inside of a WWE ring took place o the Feb. 10, 2020 episode of Monday Night Raw, featuring himself, Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders taking on Seth Rollins, Murphy and AOP in an eight-man tag match. As of Tuesday, Joe's absence from competing reached a full calendar year. At the time Joe was just coming off of a broken thumb injury, one that allowed him to try his hand as a color commentator before inserting himself into the Owens/Rollins feud.

Ten days after that eight-man tag match, news broke that Joe had suffered a head injury while shooting a commercial promoting Raw on the USA Network. WWE then announced Joe had been suspended for 30 days for a wellness policy violation. He returned to the Raw commentary desk in late April and has remained there ever since.

It's been a year since Samoa Joe wrestled his last match in WWE from r/SquaredCircle

Joe gave an update on his career back in October while speaking with Taylor Wilde, saying that his wrestling days aren't over quite yet.

"Right now I'm enjoying commentary on Raw," Joe said). "It's been a fun challenge. Obviously, I'm not done in the ring by no means. I think right now I'm exploring things. Aside from that, I'm doing voice acting which is fun and very cool. It's a very enjoyable thing. I have a project coming up with Warner Brothers (voicing King Shark in the upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League). I'm very fortunate and I'm very happy that I'm doing the things I'm doing right now."

The 41-year-old first broke out on the independent wrestling scene in the early 2000s, first by holding the Ring of Honor World Championship for a record-long 645 days and then by dethroning Kurt Angle for the TNA (now Impact) World Heavyweight Championship in 2008. He arrived in NXT in 2015 with an incredible amount of hype behind him, but other than a brief pair of United States Championship reigns he hasn't won many big matches on WWE's main roster. Hopefully that can change when he returns to action.

WWE's next pay-per-view, Elimination Chamber, takes place on Feb. 21. Check out the card below:

• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus (Elimination Chamber Match)
• Raw Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Lacey Evans
• United States Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. Keith Lee vs. Riddle