Earlier this week we reported Samoa Joe suffered a knee injury during a house show match with John Cena. WWE still has yet to comment on the situation but we now have a working timetable.
According to PWInsider, Joe visited WWE doctors in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this week. The word as of now is that he’ll be out 4-6 weeks. Unlike Xavier Woods’ knee injury there is no footage, of even first-hand acknowledgment of Joe’s incident, so we really only have what the report gives us.
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Based on this information, we can expect Joe to miss the No Mercy PPV as well. His injury may have caused WWE to shift significantly as he was rumored to be facing John Cena at the September show. As mentioned above the two competitors have been working with each other at live events to build chemistry. Joe’s untimely injury may have caused WWE to pull the trigger on Cena and Roman Reigns earlier than they had planned.
It was rumored that Reigns was set the challenge The Miz for his Intercontinental Championship, which would have allowed Reigns to become a Grand Slam Champion. Instead, WWE hosted a Battle Royal to find The Miz’s challenger. This too gave us a surprise as Jeff Hardy emerged as the victor.
A series of unlikely circumstances signify that Joe’s injury conceivably served as a catalyst for change across WWE’s card. Instead of Cena and Reigns holding off until WrestleMania, WWE decided to make an aggressive move to have them co-headline No Mercy with Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman.
If this is indeed the case, it proves to be quite the blow to WWE and Samoa Joe. Since being folded into WWE’s upper-mid card after WrestleMania, Joe has arguably been RAW’s MVP. After a feud with Brock Lesnar that surpassed the highest of expectations, Samoa Joe became a player in WWE. So much so, it was said that Paul Heyman was lobbying for Joe to leave SummerSlam as the Universal Champion.
As mentioned WWE has yet to make a statement on the matter. But as of now don’t expect to see Joe until October comes around. Here’s to a quick recovery.
