Samoa Joe debuted on NXT in May of last year, at NXT Takeover: Unstoppable. Initially, or rather for the first many months of his NXT run, it was believed that Samoa Joe was hired to solely be on NXT and help elevate younger talent. However, it was later confirmed by an insider that WWE intends on bringing up the Samoan Submission Machine onto the main roster. The problem was that they didn’t have any creative plans for his main roster debut, or at least at that said time (which was a day before Wrestlemania 32).
Usually, when a champion at NXT loses the title, it is the foreshadowing of their main roster call-up. This was none more so demonstrated when Finn Balor lost his title to Samoa Joe at a house show. However, fans had to wait for about 3 months before Balor finally got the call-up. Naturally, once Joe lost the NXT Championship to Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II, the same question popped up regarding Joe: when would he be called up to the main roster?
It appears that the original plan was for the loser of the Joe vs Nakamura match at Takeover: Brooklyn II to be called up to the main roster. However, based on the current NXT programming and storylines that are being taped, it looks like it might take a little longer for the transition to happen. It looks like Joe vs Nakamura II is in the works for NXT Takeover: Toronto, which takes place the night before Survivor Series.
This could potentially mean that Takeover: Toronto will be Samoa Joe’s swan song in NXT, where he has spent the last 15 months. There is no word on which brand Joe will end up on, but based on past rumors, Smackdown Live could possibly be the direction he is headed in.
Samoa Joe is possibly doing some of the greatest work of his career right now at NXT. He had a tremendous body of work at Ring Of Honor, being the Ring Of Honor World Champion for 645 days - an unprecedented record. That is a full 21 months. While Joe has been excelling at NXT, a vast majority agree that it is high time that he comes up to the main roster to showcase his full potential.
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