AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels had been pushing for TNA to sign Samoa Joe for months. But it wasn't until Mick Foley stepped in that Jeff Jarrett approached the Samoan Submission Machine.
"AJ and I had been pushing for Joe for a long time to come into TNA," Daniels told ESPN.
"We literally, we begged them," added Styles. "I couldn't for the life of me understand why they wouldn't want a guy like this. Chris and I worked on him profusely, every week it seemed like, to bring this guy in."
Despite their efforts, Jarrett didn't believe there was room for Joe.
"It wasn't about Joe, it was about the amount of people being pitched to us daily. I was getting pitched new talent literally every day. Persistence on AJ and persistence on Daniels and a few others that they stuck with, 'We need to get Joe, we need to get Joe, we need to get Joe.'"
A conversation with Foley changed Jarrett's tune.
"I can remember saying, 'OK, now Mick is a guy that has no dog in this hunt whatsoever,' Mick really, really sold me on Joe."
Joe made his TNA debut at Slammiversary 2005, defeating Sonjay Dutt. He went on to win the TNA Heavyweight title, X Division title, Tag Team titles, and Television title during his time with the company.
Styles and Joe engaged in legendary matches during their time with the company. Their rivalry was renewed in WWE this past Sunday at SummerSlam.
