Samoa Joe did an interview with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT to discuss a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:
Getting medically cleared after his history with concussions: “It was always a process,” said Joe. “It’s hard to give a real official timestamp on it because you got to understand with concussions, it’s not like ‘hey it’s mended, you’re good.’ And people keep applying this kind of black and white, cleared/uncleared status to it. But really, even when you’re cleared, it’s still monitoring you. There’s still check-ups, there’s still tests and so if there’s any differential, even after recovery is deemed, then it’s ‘no, no, no. We’re going to slow you up, bring you back in.’
“And that’s what it was for me, I was taking that time. I was taking every single chance to have a healthy recovery and come back at 100 percent. Not 60, no 70, not workable, but come back healthy enough where I felt comfortable coming back and going 100 percent.”
His comeback: “I think if you come back too soon and you don’t give your body and your mind a proper chance to heal, you inevitably get more injuries and that’s the cycle I got into towards the end of my last run with WWE,” said Joe. “I needed to break that cycle. I needed to take the time to make a full recovery.
“So it’s not this black and white process that everyone thinks it is, and it shouldn’t be. It should not be. That was the frustrating thing for me when people were talking about the injury like it’s a yes or a no. When it comes to brain injuries, it should never be that.”
