Samoa Joe admits crossing the line with Brock Lesnar; reveals Triple H’s reaction

Samoa Joe, Brock Lesnar, and Triple H have earned their spots in the history books of WWE, ROH, TNA, UFC, and AEW, among others. The three ring greats are very familiar with each other, in the ring and backstage. Joe just revealed more behind-the-scenes details on the fallout from a very viral WWE moment.

World Wrestling Entertainment's inaugural and only Great Balls of Fire PLE on July 9, 2017, saw Lesnar retain the Universal Championship over Samoa Joe in the six-minute main event, their first-ever singles bout. RAW the next night featured a tense segment with Joe, Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, and GM Kurt Angle. The infamous promo included Joe's viral line at Lesnar, "You look at me when I'm talking to you, or we can straighten this out right now!" Lesnar fired back, "Boy, you're about to piss me right off!"

The Samoan Submission Machine admits he went a bit overboard with The Beast Incarnate on RAW. Joe previously revealed Vince McMahon's backstage take on the moment, but the former chairman isn't the only one with a surprising reaction that night. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Joe revealed how Lesnar reacted in the ring and what Triple H said when they returned to the Gorilla Position.

"Yeah, Brock was surprised too. [CVV: he didn’t know?] No, I mean, well a lot of that, too, and I’m not sure. There’s a lot of promos I had with Brock, but Brock really liked the kind of chaotic energy. I brought things and he loved that. ... Yeah, I may have in the grand creative scheme of things went a little overboard [with the 'look at me!' line]. It was fine, but I just remember when I walked back through the curtain, Hunter is like, 'Oh, awesome. Everybody’s stoked,'" Samoa Joe said.

The RAW segment on July 10, 2017, led to Joe vs. Reigns to determine Lesnar's WWE SummerSlam challenger, but Braun Strowman crashed the match. Angle then booked a Fatal 4-Way, which saw Lesnar retain after taking Joe out with an F5, then going on to pin Reigns after the same.

Samoa Joe to tangle with WWE Superstar tonight

Samoa Joe joined Tony Khan's ROH and AEW in April 2022, and besides the occasional absence for outside projects or injuries, he has been there ever since.

Joe will team with Hook on tonight's live Dynamite as he faces a very familiar face from his past: World Trios Champion Claudio Castagnoli and one of his partners, Wheeler Yuta. In singles matches, Joe wrestled Castagnoli twice in the original ROH, for a DQ win and a pinfall win in 2006. They had two WWE RAW singles matches in 2017 and 2019, both wins for Joe.

Joe and Hook vs. Castagnoli and Yuta is part of The Opps vs. The Death Riders, which will also see Trios Champion PAC vs. Swerve Strickland and World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Katsuyori Shibata.