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The latest episode of Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions podcast with Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz contained all the hottest news and rumors coming out from the world of pro wrestling and one the topics of discussion was Samoa Joe's return and the false reports of his suspension.
Tom revealed that Joe's TV return on the latest RAW was meant to be a surprise, however, the company was forced to announce his comeback in advance to squash the rumor about his suspension.
Samoa Joe was also aware of the speculation and wanted it to be shot down, which is why he may have pushed to return to action ahead of schedule. It was noted that Joe wasn't needed in the storyline as the WWE was building upon the angle in which Kevin Owens was taking on Seth Rollins' action single-handedly, which could have been stretched out further.
WrestleVotes had previously alluded to the fact that Joe was taken off TV due to a wellness policy violation. However, the Twitter handle admitted their mistake and the Submission Machine was promptly brought back to RAW on the most recent episode.
The former United States Champion was out of action after he suffered a stinger during a match a few weeks ago on RAW. He was reportedly out with a concussion.
With the report of his suspension and uncertain future doing the rounds, the decision may have been made to Joe him back sooner and the company was also compelled to spoil the in-ring return with an official announcement.
Tom had the following to say:
I said that he’d been taken out, he’d been checked and he’d been removed from the match but he didn’t seem to show any signs of an actual injury. Now it’s certainly possible that there may have been a mild concussion. Even with the mildest of concussions at the moment, you’re not seeing people come straight back. That’s just not something that’s happening. What was explained to me was he got a stinger, and he got shaken up, but he would be back soon.
But the reality was that he wasn’t needed in the story at that point and in fact, a week away, he’s beneficial to that storyline because it creates that everyone against Kevin Owens mentality that they really built on. You can see how smartly they used that in the RAWs that followed. They could have made that happen for a little bit longer, but there was a pressure on them to prove the rumor wrong.
And unfortunately to my knowledge, Samoa Joe was also aware of that rumor and wanted to get back in action. Someone like Samoa Joe, who just loves to be in the action, would then put them in a situation whereby Joe is trying to force himself back ahead of schedule to prove people wrong. It’s not the right thing and it’s very unfortunate but, the wrestling Twitter account which initially reported it have since recanted it and said ‘I got it wrong, put the hands up, I’m sorry’. Fair enough. That does happen in the wrestling journalism world, that is fair enough. We will see from here. From my knowledge, it was supposed to be a surprise that this week he returned, but they did have to announce it ahead of time to sort of clear up the rumor and say, ‘hey, it’s not a thing, stop spreading rumors.’
For more details about storylines, matchcards of WrestleMania 36 visit: WrestleMania 36
