Health Issues Nearly Led To Retirement For Top AEW Star

AEW

A top AEW star has spoken about issues that almost led to their retirement before they would sign with AEW.

Having been released twice in the space of under twelve months by WWE, Samoa Joe recently accused the company of “playing out their war with the careers and contracts of the people beneath them.”

Since February 2020, concussion issues had led to Samoa Joe only having one match in August 2021 in which he would face Karrion Kross.

He would be release by WWE (for the second time) in January 2022 and would sign with AEW shortly thereafter, debuting at ROH Supercard of Honor in April.

Speaking to Renee Paquette on The Sessions, he was asked what had made him choose to sign with AEW, answering:

“All the money they threw at me. Immediately, threw all my morals away…no [laughs].

“I was legitimately thinking about hanging it up for health reasons.”

Joe would go on to explain the issues he was having post-concussion, saying:

“Still coming off the concussion and still dealing with the very end effects of that and getting back in the ring healthy and transitioning back to a physical state where it’s like I can do something for a good period of time and not want to pass out.

“I basically caught two concussions very close together, which is terrible. To that point, I did take a year off to do commentary, which helped me tremendously and I do not regret taking that time. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

“That allowed me to get healthy and get my mind back together and get back into a place where I felt confident even doing anything physical.

“I realize that if I were to rush that and done that, I probably, inevitably, would not have returned to the ring at all. I am happy I handled that well, despite wanting to get after it.”

Since signing with AEW, Samoa Joe has gone on to be a two-time AEW TNT Champion and is the current ROH Television Champion.

Transcript from Fightful.

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• concussion
• Samoa Joe
• AEW

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