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August 20, 2025 • 12 mins
Adam Barnard is joined by AEW Trios Champion Samoa Joe for TheSportster! Joe and Adam talk about the future of AEW, his in-ringstyle, and his role on Peacock's Twisted Metal.

Read the full piece and watch the full video at TheSportster here.

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Host/Executive Producer: Adam Barnard
Additional Production/Narration: Sam Krepps
Engineer: Carl Pannell

Intro Music: Carl Pannell
Outro Music/Musical Accompaniment: Enrichment

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A Butts Carlton Media production. Butts Carlton, Proprietor.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Foundation Radio was brought to you by tenth Ward Barbershop,
a full service barbershop offering high quality haircuts, beard trims
and hot shaves. Tenth Ward Barbershop proudly serves the historic Lawrenceville,
tenth Ward and surrounding Pittsburgh areas. Adam frequents tenth Ward
Barbershop when he swings through the area and loves Ryan
Kainsley's their sharp precision on both his hair and beard needs.

(00:22):
But you don't have to.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Take his word for it.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
WWE superstars Finn Balor and Corey Graves frequent tenth Ward
Barbershop for their hair and beard needs. The team at
tenth Ward accepts walk ins, but schedules fill up quickly,
so the best way to see them is to make
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zero thh Ward Barbershop dot com. Make sure to grab
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(00:46):
you're there. Schedule your appointment today to see Kane, Jordan
and the rest of the team at tenth Ward Barbershop today,
and we thank them for sponsoring the program. This is

(01:13):
Foundation Radio. Here is your host, Adam Barnard.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Peace World, and welcome to a special conversation for the
sports term. My name is Adam Bernard. Thank you so
much for joining me again today. My guest is one
third of the current AEW Trio champions, a former AW
champion himself, and the star of the Peacock Show Twisted
Metal Samoa Joe Sir.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
An honor and a privilege to speak to you today.
How are you excellent?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Very good to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Good, Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I've just read the news about your ankle as well
during the filming of Twisted Metal. First things I want
to ask, sir, because that's the polite thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
How are you feeling.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
I couldn't really tell anything was off last night or
the other night in your match on Wednesday.

Speaker 5 (01:52):
Oh, I mean yeah, because I mean it did happen
months ago, so I mean it's been plenty of times
since the a few times one A Trios Championships, So yeah,
it feels good. Yeah, you know, it's a small fracture.
Like I said, it wasn't a break. It was a
fracture and uh, you know, on the smaller side thankfully,
but yeah, it was sucked. At the time, but you know,

(02:15):
along with the crew and stuff, it all worked out.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
And yeah, I'm feeling good. So yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Good.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Like I said, I just want to be polite, want
to make sure you're good.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I figured it was. You know that those can be
a little appreciate.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
I appreciate that. It's a lovely, lovely sentiment. I like that.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Guy, you got it, man, you got it now again,
you're a part of the ops with Powerhouse, Hobbs and Shabata.
What's the experience like being working with them and then
also holding the trio titles together.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
You know, it's been it's been a fun experience, you know,
and then I would include hook in order to be
there work with these talents, allow them to kind of
develop more on the on the world stage.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
You know. It's always a cool experience for me.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
And you know, I think everybody who's been a part
of the faction is kind of coming into their own
Uh yeah, I'm digging in.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
A lot now.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
I know that you've been in the game for a
long time, You've held championships and titles across multiple companies,
and you're an established veteran in the wrestling world. Is
there anyone in the locker room at AEW that comes
to you with questions and in your opinion, who do
you think would maybe potentially be the next big thing
at AW.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
You know, as far as you know, general questions. I mean,
I think that's just kind of you know, with working
with one another. That's kind of where you know, I
gained a lot of my knowledge is working with guys
who are who are veteran to me and just those
interactions and observing and seeing how they view it a match,
how they would put it together. You know, I'm not
one for unsolicited advice, mainly because you know, a lot

(03:42):
of the times it goes unheeded. So in the spirit
of that, yeah, usually usually a lot of a lot
of that happens just in the interactions of working with
one another and stuff. And you know, it's always cool
to see if you know, they do pick something up
or they do, you know, kind of enhance their repertoire
with something that they learned in those interactions. And yeah,
are as stars that are coming up. I mean, I
mean it's you know, you have quite the plethora when

(04:04):
it comes to AW. I mean a lot of young
guys that are just you know, above and beyond.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
I mean, you.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Know, I think legitimately, I don't. I think I don't
think it's very hard to see. I think singing on
out just one or even five would kind of be
a detriment to the amount of talent that we have,
socially young talent, you know, within the bounds of aw Now.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I know you had your first match back this week
on Dynamite. Since you were attacked by the Death Riders,
seems like there might be some unfinished business there with
them after that attack. Do you have any messages you
want to give to the Death Riders? Are head of
Forbidden Door next week?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (04:43):
No, Well, the thing about death Riders is they're they're
super dumb, right, so the communication feels really low, but
they do understand getting smacked around the face and punched
in the head.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
So I mean, we're.

Speaker 5 (04:54):
Going to communicate them with the best way they know
how to communicate, and you know, hopefully we can come
to a satisfactory resolution, which will be you know, probably
them not communicating at all after that.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
So we'll see.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I would be absolutely terrified seeing you coming straight at
me in the ring, So I wish them the best
of luck, sir, because they're going to need it. But
wrestling continually evolves in terms of in ring styles, but
your own style has remained pretty timeless and it seamlessly
kind of fits into several eras and promotions. Where did
you draw inspiration from to develop your style and what's
been the secret for you to maintain it in such

(05:28):
a timeless matter, you know, when the modern era is
so high with you know, high spots and things like that.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
You know, I just a lot of my influence came
from a lot of my career path, you know, you know,
starting out with the guy who broke me in, a
business guy named Cincinnati Red, who was known to be
a you know, a gretty, tough brawler in his own right,
to working under Shinya Hashimoto, and just learning so much
in the in the early stages of my career from
Hey about presidence and how to you know, be a commanding,

(06:00):
almost demanding, attention type figure whenever you're in the ring,
and then you know, just kind of enhancing that, adding
you know, my own experiences, my own things to it,
and allowing that to evolve into what I am today.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
You're part of the cast Peacock's Twisted Metal and I
know that while Willernette voices the character. Is there anything
that you've learned from a physical standpoint in terms of
acting or telling a story without words that you've brought
into the Ring?

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Oh, I mean a tremendous amount.

Speaker 5 (06:29):
I think, you know, being forced, especially with the sweetooth Mass,
which is very, very not inclined to show a lot
of emotion just by its nature. Yeah, you really just
you know, just in the practice of being that character,
your body language and how you express yourself can't help
it improve. And yeah, I've definitely noticed myself being a

(06:51):
little bit more emotive in the Ring whenever I do
do things.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Now, I know obviously, like we said, Willernette voice is
the character. Is there anything that you say or any
wild stuff that you do during it takes you're like, oh,
this is never going to make cair you just have
a good time with it while you're standing there with
Anthony Mackie.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
No, you know, because in all honesty, well, I'll tell
you why, I really don't want to throw off the
other actors. I know they're in the middle of their takes.
They're you know, they're trying to give their best performance,
and really, just out of respect to them.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
You know I would like I wouldn't. I wouldn't have the.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Nerve to do that, you know, I would I would
hate to break a take when somebody was like kicking
ass on their end of the shot, and you know
I just decided to kind of half asset or whatever.
You know, like I really do try to give my
best effort because man, I just everybody works so hard.
I hate to be the person that was like not
working as hard as anybody else.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
And what can viewers expect of season two?

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Because I know it's out now on Peacock and it's
two episodes every or it's every let me see it
every Thursday released two new episodes. What can fans expect
from this new season?

Speaker 4 (07:51):
You know, you know, if you.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
Really really enjoyed our first season, if you haven't checked
it out, I highly recommend it. You know it is
it is that amped up times to you know, to
kind of draw it all that, but no, legitimately, I
mean we just we had just at such a bigger
scale and scope and now we actually enter into the tournament.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
And if you know you love car.

Speaker 5 (08:12):
Combat, you love comedy, you love gore, horror, all that stuff,
you know, we got a little bit for everybody, and
you know, it's come out to be a very enjoyable
show that I love working on and I really hope
people enjoy.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Now we're approaching the twentieth anniversary of your legendary Ring
of Honor bout against Kenta Kobashi. Can you talk us
through what was going through your mind as you stood
across the ring from him, and what he was like
to work with inside and outside of the ring, and
are there any stories that you all share from that experience.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
We kens Kobashi both as as a wrestler inside outside
the ring, probably you know, the consummate professional, one of
the kindest souls and most you know, just awesome people
you get out of the pleasure to meet in the ring.
Just an absolute beast, you know, an unstoppable tank of
a human being who just he's coming forward and then

(09:01):
keeps kicking ass. And you know, like I said, I
had the tremendous fortune opportunity to face him one on
one in the ring, you know, and in the better
part of his career when he was you know, he
was never not great, but you.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Know, at a time when he was probably at his
most formidable, and.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
You know, we got to, you know, give fans, especially
our h fans at the time, a really truly special
experience when you know, at the time not a lot
of Japanese wrestlers ever made their way to you on shores.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Now, my last question for you, Joe, I want to
thank you again for your time. So it's of been
an absolute pleasure. I know that you are a hip
hop fan like me, You're a hip hop head like me,
and we had a string of really incredible releases recently,
just in the past summer. I feel like, and I
would be remiss not to ask your thoughts about the
CLIPS record and if you've heard anything else that you
really enjoyed recently.

Speaker 5 (09:52):
Anything Clip spits out is fantastic. So I mean it's
you know, I'll always enjoy a CLIPS release. Stuff that
I've heard lately, I honestly know, but only because I've
kind of been on another music kick for right now.
I've kind of been you know, small house indie punk
bands more more like current stuff because like I stopped

(10:13):
listening to stuff posts like twenty ten and then now
I'm kind of like, all right, I'm gonna give it
a shot again and see if there's anybody really big
out there right now.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
So yeah, I mean that's kind of where.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Yeah, I've gone on a journey, but I know me,
once I get back on the road real heavy, I'll
be right back into my hip hop catalog and checking
that stuff out. So I'll definitely have some better and
more thorough picks for you.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
What I was gonna say, if I can recommend Alfredo
two in the Emperor's New Clothes by Rayqwan, Both of
those albums are fantastic, So I'm sure you're gonna really
appreciate that ghost Face is real heavy.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
I'm already I'm already already got my hand on my eye,
tried to helmet.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
It right much, dude, that raycond album.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Is said, Is that all right?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
I mean yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, Soul, just
just give me all of it right now. So so
what would Joe? Once again, thank you so much for
your time? Season two, Who Have Twisted Metal is currently
streaming now on Peacock, with two new episodes each Thursday
through the end of August. Don't forget to check out
AW Dynamite AW Dynamite every Wednesday at APM, as well
as the upcoming AW Forbidden door Saturday, August twenty fourth

(11:14):
from the Tow Arena. Check your local listings for start
times for both of those. Samoa Joe, Sir, thank you
for your time and let me know what you think
about the Requad album.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
I definitely will no, I'm looking forward to it. I
got a little afternoon time here, so I'll definitely give.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
It a good listen.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Awesome man.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
This episode of Foundation Radio is hosted, recorded, and produced
by Adam Barnard. Additional narration and production is provided by
the executive Voice Sam Kraft. Are mixing and engineering as
well as Our intro music is by Carl Panell. Our
outro music and additional musical accompaniment are produced by Enrichment.
Follow Adam on X or Twitter or whatever and Instagram

(12:11):
at This is Goober, and follow the show on x
and Instagram at FND Radio Pod. Find our entire show
archive at Foundation Radio dot net. This has been a
Buttz Carlton Media production. Butts Carlton proprietor
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