From the WWE Rumor Mill:  Samoa Joe's foot injury worse than expected

What's the story?

During a recent match against Rhyno on Monday Night Raw, Samoa Joe injured his foot and hasn't been on television since. Dave Meltzer is reporting on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that the injury is worse than expected.

In case you didn't know...

After a 17-year career, Samoa Joe finally made his debut in the WWE on the January 30th episode of Monday Night Raw last year when he attacked Seth Rollins the night after the Royal Rumble.

During his time in NXT, Joe and Finn Balor won the first Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in 2015, and Joe was the first person in NXT history to have a second title reign with the NXT Championship.

The heart of the matter

Meltzer states that Joe has been pulled from the Royal Rumble; which occurs in a little over a week on January 28th. He's also been replaced on the return to Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 16th.

Samoa Joe was originally scheduled to face John Cena and Roman Reigns in a triple threat match, but The Miz will replace Joe.

At the time of this writing, it is unknown if Joe was miss WrestleMania as well. It may be too soon to tell, but considering he was not on the card last year, there is a lot of hope from around the wrestling world that he will be okay to compete by then.

What's next?

Stay tuned to Sportskeeda for further updates on the status of Samoa Joe. Next up for the WWE is the Raw 25 this coming Monday with many former WWE Superstars returning to this special event.

Author's take

I was hoping Samoa Joe would make his debut at the Rumble last year, but holding him off until the night after to surprisingly attack Seth Rollins was great. With that said, I'm still bummed that Joe is going to miss the Rumble.

I would love to see how a guy as talented as Joe would fair in this type of match. Now I just hope he doesn't miss WrestleMania too at this point. That would really be a downer.