WWE News: Samoa Joe opens up about WWE "raiding the indies" for talent

What's the story?

Anyone familiar with the wrestling industry, in general, will know that, any time a wrestler makes a name for themselves on the independent scene, there's a pretty good chance they'll at the very least be linked with WWE - if not end up being signed up for the company.

Well, there have been critiques in the past that WWE was "killing the business" by taking talent from the independent scene, and one of WWE's most successful former indie stars has spoken out.

In case you didn't know...

While Samoa Joe is one of WWE's top stars just now and looks set for a huge push on SmackDown after making the move to the blue brand during the Superstar Shake-up, it's easy to forget that he's a 39-year-old veteran of the business.

Joe looks better than ever and has been making waves on the main roster ever since the Samoan Submission Machine attacked Seth Rollins on Monday Night Raw in January 2017, and had a huge run in NXT beforehand where he was firmly at the top of the card as NXT Champion and in a long-standing rivalry with Finn Balor - but Joe knows how life is outside of WWE.

What's unique about Samoa Joe is that his name was the very same outside of WWE, he's one of few talents who was able to keep his original moniker, allowing continuity between his days outside of WWE and within the company.

Samoa Joe has been in the business for 18 years and has wrestled across the globe, notably for Ring of Honour, Pro Wrestling Noah, AAA and TNA among others and, at one point, it had always been thought that he may never come to WWE. Watching Joe in the ring now, you'd think he'd always been a part of the company.

The heart of the matter

In a recent interview with Pop Culture, Samoa Joe addressed a “problem” that has been raised on several occasions - if WWE takes its talent from its NXT brand, and its NXT brand takes almost all of its talent from the indies - is WWE a bad thing for pro wrestling in general?

Well, in typical Joe style, he doesn't mince his words.

“Hey, you know whose fault it is, that your favourite wrestler got bought out? The company he was working for, cause they were too cheap to pay him what he was worth. So he should get paid what he’s worth, and if WWE comes and pays him what he’s worth, that’s on your sorry ass. Get the money right and start paying these dudes.”

Joe essentially pinpoints the actual problem as being professional wrestlers wanting to be paid what they're worth, and essentially make a living out of what they do.

”There are too many crazy talented dudes out there that aren’t getting paid, and if you have a problem with WWE making those dudes rich, you can kiss my ass, cause those dudes deserve to be rich cause they’re talented as hell.”

Joe went on to commend WWE for their strategy, too, saying that's what makes them the best.

“It’s funny because people are like, ‘Oh, well that’s kind of messed up,’ No. No. That’s how you win. That’s why they’re the number one company in the world. You go out there and you get the best dudes. You don’t get mad at a tiger for being a tiger.”

What's next?

Samoa Joe had a knockdown, drag-out fight with Roman Reigns on WWE's Backlash pay-per-view and, while Joe had spent some time on the shelf due to a pretty serious injury, the former NXT Champion looks like he hasn't missed a beat.

Joe is on the SmackDown Live brand and you can watch him in action on Tuesday nights.

Author's take

I always love hearing from Samoa Joe. He always keeps it real and says exactly what's on his mind, no filter. He doesn't mince his words here and, well, it's pretty hard to argue with him.