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What's the story?
Samoa Joe was already a well-known star when he joined WWE, which could be why his Merchandise sales were through the roof when he first debuted in NXT and The Game was impressed.
In case you didn't know...
Samoa Joe has wrestled all over the world but he wasn't someone that WWE boss Vince McMahon was interested in bringing into WWE throughout the time he was in his peak--Regardless, when Triple H was given free reign in NXT he decided to sign the Samoan Submission Machine, and so far he has proved to be an interesting entity.
Joe's popularity came over from his TNA days and he made quite the impact on his W NXT debut when he confronted Kevin Owens following his win over Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Unstoppable.
The heart of the matter
Samoa Joe's merchandise sales were impressive following his debut since Joe revealed in a recent interview with Not Sam Wrestling that Triple H personally congratulated him on being the number two best selling star in the company.
“I think after the first week, the main roster was kind of already something would happen," he said via Ringsidenews. "When they got the first merch numbers when you know and the viewership numbers and a lot of other stuff, a lot of different aggregates that come in. I think the simplest way to describe it was I had debuted on NXT, I had went to the studio the next day for the tapings, Hunter had walked off his bus and came up to shake my hand. He said, ‘hey congratulations,’ I was like, ‘what?’ he said, ‘Number 2 in merch last night whew.'"
“I went, ‘oh number two in merch last night for NXT that’s pretty good,’ he said, ‘NOPE, for the company.'"
At the time, Kevin Owens went on to debut on the main roster against John Cena and he was the top merch seller, which means that Joe wasn't far behind.
What's next?
Joe has the chance to become WWE Champion next weekend when he takes on AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell.
Do you think Samoa Joe has what it takes to be WWE Champion? Have your say in the comments section below...
