Samoa Joe Is Still Keeping His Talent Scout Eyes Open For AEW, Explains His Scouting Philosophy

Samoa Joe details his thought process around talent scouting and credits William Regal for showing stars of his generation a clear path to success.

Prior to his WWE release, Samoa Joe was heavily involved in preparing the next generation of superstars, acting as a talent scout for the company. Now that he is working for AEW, Samoa Joe says he is still keeping his eyes open for up-and-coming talent but now it’s for a different purpose. 

“Yeah, when [I was with] WWE [I was] heavily involved in the scouting department, and right now, I kind of keep those eyes open and keep those eyes out there for a different purpose. Obviously, you want to have some of the best up-and-comers coming into your company and if I can help facilitate that for AEW, I’d be more than happy to,” said Joe on the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted.

As for whether or not he likes that type of work, Samoa Joe says he grew to appreciate it because individuals like William Regal showed Joe and others of his generation a clear path to success in the industry. Joe, moving forward, wants to continue to do that for the next generation saying that too many brag about success without putting over the plan it took to get them there.

“I’ve learned to appreciate it and like it because of men like William Regal, who, at the height of their careers, took time to give me advice, and not just show me a path. It wasn’t, ‘Hey, I’ll put in a word for you, I’ll do this.’ He was like, ‘No, here’s the path. If you choose to follow it, you can find success,’ and it’s just something that’s kind of missing in the industry as a whole,” Joe said. ”You know, there’s just not a lot of guys who have that experience kind of going back and having honest discussions with dudes about what the industry is like, what this business really is, breaking down the numbers and not just being grandiose and bragging about how you’re awesome, and ‘This is how much you did and this and this…’

“Every empire is built with a plan,” Joe continued. “The problem is, we don’t talk about the plan enough. We just talk about the empire. I’d like to change that. Anytime I can offer a word of advice to somebody young and up-and-coming who wants to put themselves in the best possible position to succeed, which I think is vitally important to anybody in our industry is putting yourself in a position to be successful, not just waiting for something to break or happen, is a big asset bank of our knowledge which isn’t shared enough and I’d like to see that happen more.”

Samoa Joe, the current Ring of Honor Television Champion, is involved in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. The bracket for the tournament was recently set. You can check out the full bracket here. 

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