13. Samoa Joe On Giving John Cena The Match That Got Him Hired By The WWE

During a recent appearance on Drew Garabo Live, Raw Superstar Samoa Joe talked about John Cena getting a WWE offer after his match with Joe, Triple H helping him get signed to WWE & more. Below are the highlights:

On helping John Cena get a job with WWE:

“Actually, John Cena’s match with me, the one that kind of got him hired with WWE, I remember they were there to look at John, obviously. He looked great, he was like the blue-chipper, and John was a good friend of mine, so I had no problem whatsoever helping him kind of highlight and do his thing. Hey man, he was a hard worker, man. He got it done, so after the match, I remember Jim Ross, head of Talent Relations at the time, I went up to him and I was like, ‘is there any interest over here?’ ‘Ah, no, son. I don’t think you’re quite going to work out here.’ Two years in, but it was cool because I was like, ‘well, if I can’t go there, I’m going to focus on all this other stuff. Where else can you make money? Oh, Japan!’ So I focused on Japan, I got a contract over there, and the rest is history.”

On his merchandise sales helping in him getting exclusively signed to WWE:

“It definitely does. I know after that happened, the phone call was, ‘yeah, we need you to be signed exclusively immediately.’ Obviously, it plays a big part and if there’s a fanbase there, especially, if you want to vote, it’s the economy. You vote with your dollars. People were excited I was there. It makes a big difference.”