Samoa Joe Reacts To WWE Release

Only nine months after his first WWE release, Samoa Joe was let go by the company for a second time earlier this week, with reports noting The Samoan Submission Machine was fired on Wednesday, January 5 as part of cuts within NXT and at the Performance Center. 

News of Joe's release emerged on Thursday and the three-time NXT Champion reacted to being let go on Twitter, writing: "Extremely fortunate and grateful to all the young & amazing talent I had the pleasure of working with in the past months. Only saddened at the loss of an 'excuse' to see their continued growth & achievement. I am very excited for there future,….. and mine [Upside down face]."

Joe was released along with several other members of NXT who worked behind the scenes, including William Regal, Road Dogg, Dave Kapoor, Timothy Thatcher and Danny Burch, among others. 

The releases come at a time when WWE are continuing to move away from the old black-and-gold version of NXT and the cuts were reportedly done to remove Triple H's hires from the developmental brand.