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Samoa Joe is not expected out of action for an extended period of time but there's no word yet as to when he'll be back. We are told the decision to strip him was not a creative one but what was stated, WWE medical made the call, so the decision was made to strip Joe and crown a new champion tonight, trying to turn a negative into a positive by having the coronation of the next WWE NXT Champion as part of the NXT 2.0 broadcast.
There is no word whether Joe will be at today's taping.
Behind the scenes, there is a lot of trepidation among NXT talents going into tonight's taping. There had already been a lot of stress and concern among talents after the last batch of releases, since the feeling among many is that talents who did "everything they were supposed to" and/or were "great talents" were released, leaving some of those who remained that PWInsider.com has spoken with feeling as if everyone was now on thin ice and that even if they did the right thing, it didn't matter and their runs could be over at any point with no notice. While that was always true, there had previously been a feeling that they were in a protective cocoon of sorts thanks to Paul Levesque, but that feeling was ripped away obviously.
The fact that Paul Levesque will likely not be at today's taping due to his recent medical emergency has also raised concern as there's a feeling among some talents that they don't know what they are walking into today and don't even know if it's going to be Levesque's regular team running the taping or others from WWE. There is a great sense of unease among many talents as they wait, like everyone else, to find out what exactly NXT is supposed to be going forward, as a product.
The call-time for today's taping was moved up earlier than usual because of it being the first live broadcast in several weeks and with everything planned, including pre-tapes.
WWE NXT is slated to be live all through the remainder of September and October, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
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