Samoa Joe has revealed the origin of one of his most famous spots.
The former AEW World Champion recently had an interview with Chris Van Vliet. He discussed things as the muscle buster that ended Tyson Kidd’s career, how long he plans to continue wrestling, and more.
During the interview, he also talked about his ‘nope’ spot which has become a staple of his matches. Samoa Joe revealed that the whole thing started as a joke between him and Christopher Daniels:
“Well, it started out as a gag, and it was a house show gag where I’d work Christopher Daniels and at some point, I would call a cross body or something and I’d walk away from it.
And Chris, to his credit, every time I did it, as he’s diving here, he’s like, you son of a bitch, you dirty bastard, he would always like cursed little phrase at me as he fell to his doom.”
Then It Became A Bit: Samoa Joe
According to the wrestling veteran, it was AJ Styles who encouraged him to continue the spot with other wrestlers as well, and it slowly became a regular bit:
“So it kind of started out as that, and then I remember I did it to him, and then him and AJ began requesting it on people, like, Oh, you got to get him with the walk away today. Come on, dude, it’ll be hilarious. You got to get him with it. So then it became kind of a bit when I started showing up on TV.”
The former WWE star also told a similar story about the origin of his name. He noted that he was given the stereotypical character of a Samoan wrestler despite not being part of the Samoan wrestling family.
So he chose the name Samoa Joe as a joke. As he started delivering good matches, however, bookers started requesting him by name. Joe noted that at that time, the internet wasn’t as big, and getting your name out there was a process. So he didn’t dare change it afterward in fear of losing the bookings.
