Samoa Joe Suspend By WWE, Matt Hardy To NXT?

Samoa Joe Suspend By WWE

Samoa Joe has not been having himself a good February. It got worse for him this week. WWE has announced that Joe has earned his first wellness policy suspension. The infraction will cost him 30 days on the sidelines.

This news comes after the Superstar had apparently suffered his second concussion in less than a month. The first head injury was sustained during a match on Monday Night RAW, though the company never officially confirmed one was suffered. The second concussion was reportedly incurred during an awkward stunt bump for an advertisement Joe was shooting.

The bad luck month of February hits Joe hard, as the Superstar had only just returned to action. He ended 2019 as a WWE commentator while he recovered from an earlier thumb injury. Now, between his concussions and wellness suspension, we won’t be seeing Samoa Joe do anything until we are much closer to WrestleMania. In terms of timing, it couldn’t be much worse for the big man.

About that bad timing…

Earlier in February, WrestleVotes insinuated that a new round of wellness suspensions was imminent. The feeling at that time was that Joe would be the big name involved, but then nothing materialized. WWE sources even came out at that time and explicitly said Joe was not about to be suspended.

In light of the concussions suffered since that time, perhaps WWE officials are wishing that they had suspended him. A suspended Superstar is going to have a much harder time getting knocked for a loop when he isn’t performing.

With the rash of injuries, some were beginning to speculate what it could do for Joe’s long term WWE viability. Now adding the suspension, it’s fair to wonder what impact this will have on his plans within WWE both in the short and long term. It becomes a lot harder to build him into a WrestleMania program if he won’t be working on RAW again until the later part of March.

Matt Hardy To NXT?

Matt Hardy has been getting quite a bit of attention lately. The enigmatic Superstar has been on the receiving end of several beatings from Randy Orton, and many feel that’s how WWE is choosing to send him out. As of March 1, Hardy’s WWE contract will expire.

There has been plenty of speculation that Hardy wants to leave, and that he could already have a home lined up for him with AEW. Even if there is interest, WWE is still trying hard to keep the Superstar employed.

Per PWInsider, in their latest efforts to retain Hardy, WWE is dangling an NXT role. There is no word on specifics for that role as of yet. It’s possible that WWE could put him on screen-perhaps the lighter workload would appeal to Hardy.

Even more plausible would be leveraging Hardy’s vast knowledge and bringing him into a position that would allow him to help develop young talents.