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What's the story?
Samoa Joe suffered a foot injury in a match against Rhyno back in January and has since been forced to miss The Royal Rumble, but it seems that the former NXT Champion could now be set to miss WrestleMania as well.
In case you didn't know...
Samoa Joe has been out of action now for a month with a foot injury but still appeared on the preshow of NXT Takeover: Philadelphia a few weeks ago, which led to rumors that Joe could have been added to The Royal Rumble match.
Sadly, this wasn't the case since he didn't enter the match in the end and hasn't been seen on WWE TV since. Joe did state in a recent interview that his injury was something that was being taken on a "week to week" basis so it is unknown how long he will be out of action for all together. Joe revealed that it wasn't something that could be fixed surgically, so that is why it is causing him so many issues.
The heart of the matter
WrestlingInc are now reporting that the former NXT Champion has been removed from all WWE Live Events until after WrestleMania. He was originally John Cena's opponent for the March 16th show at Madison Square Garden, but that has since been changed and Cena is now teaming with his fiancee Nikki Bella against Elias and Bayley.
Joe has been taken out of all of the matches he was planned to be part of until the companies European Tour in May. This could be a precaution if WWE has something planned for the star in the coming months that could lead to a match at WrestleMania, especially since there are so many superstars out injured currently.
What's next?
Joe's return from injury seems to be something that the company can't put a timetable on, which is a huge blow for the former TNA star since he is yet to make an appearance at WrestleMania since he wasn't used at last year's show despite being fit and could be forced to miss this year's event through injury.
Author's take
Samoa Joe is someone that Raw has been missing over the past few weeks, it's just a terrible time for him to have gotten injured and in a way that there is no timeline on his return. WWE is struggling with injuries right now with Paige, Alicia Fox, Dean Ambrose, Big Show, Big Cass, Jeff Hardy and Jason Jordan just some of the stars joining Joe on the treatment table at the worst time of the year.
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