Samoa Joe has been in the WWE for nearly five years now, but right now is the first time he has really been a good guy on TV.

The Submission Machine has really caught fire on RAW as a babyface and looks set to be a big player on Monday nights for the near future.

talkSPORT caught up with the 40-year-old during Royal Rumble weekend we dived into a number of topics with the former NXT champion.

Samoa Joe is thriving under Paul Heyman on RAW

Hi Joe! So first off, how is it now being cheered by the fans? They’ve always kind of been behind you, but this is your first real run as a good guy.

It’s not really that different. I just don’t feel bad that bad about it after they leave the arena cheering for me when I do such horrible things to their favourite people [laughs]. Nah, it’s cool man. People say it’s long overdue, but at the same time, when you’re good at being the antagonist, you’re good at being the antagonist. It’s not an easy pitch to swing it the other way. It’s a lot of fun and the crowds have been awesome. We’ll just keep riding the wave and see where it goes.

I wanted to ask about your role in the storyline with Roman Reigns and him being attacked last year. Fans really wanted you to team-up as that storyline unfolded, but we didn’t get that and it seemed like that may have been a story put together as it went. Was there ever plans for you two to team?

I think it kind of just unfolded the way it did. Obviously, there’s always these thoughts, but yeah, I don’t think there really were [any other plans].

I mean, yeah. I think the same thing could be said for The Usos, we definitely probably could gel and it would work out well, but at the same time, we’re all real individual personalities and I’d hate to be grouped with a bunch of people just because we share the same cultural heritage. That’s weird, in this day and age.

WWE Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe have always worked together well

But, objectively speaking, you’re all immense! That’s a solid reason to do it?

We’re all pretty awesome. But it’s not like we’ve got nothing else in common except for one glaring, obvious thing. Why do you want to group us into a group together? Everyone really wants to do that. Everyone wants us in a group together so we’re easily identifiable or something, I don’t know! [laughs].

Speaking of creativity, how have things been going with Paul Heyman at the helm on RAW?

It’s been going great. Anyone who knows Paul, he’s an extremely passionate individual. I will say this: Paul is the most charismatic pitch-man as far as wanting to do anything you will find in sports entertainment. The fans are treated to Paul Heyman soliloquies on TV all the time. He’s a very good wordsmith and a very good orator and imagine this on a voicemail at four in the afternoon. Just a very well-crafted, Paul Heyman little diatribe where he lays out to you [puts on Heyman’s voice] his vision of what I see! It’s fun. It’s awesome. They’re cool messages.

You and AJ Styles had one of the more memorable storylines in recent memory in 2018, especially because it involved AJ’s wife. How was it putting all that together and actually doing it? Who helped?

It was a lot of people. Obviously, with me and AJ, it’s very clockwork. If we’re into something, we’re in 100%. Not much is discussed between us [laughs]. It’s like whatever, man. Literally, we’ve been fighting forever, we’ve been doing this for quite a while now so going into the Wendy thing, just the ridiculousness of it really made us laugh. Because if you know… AJ, I’ve known forever.

WWE Samoa Joe cutting a promo on RAW

He’s like family to me. He sat at my wedding, he and his wife are very close friends of ours [Joe and his wife] and then to be standing on a table telling you good friend’s wife that I can be your new daddy now [laughs] the silliness… like, it’s silly to a fan. It’s ridiculous to a fan. But the level of ridiculous to the people who know each other for upwards of a decade far outpaces any pleasure you pulled out from it. Up and down, both of our families were giddy, silly over how ridiculous the whole thing was. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.

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