Samoa Joe was number two in WWE merchandise sales after just one week with the company following his NXT debut.

If you had told a wrestling fan ten years ago that the WWE landscape would look the way that it does today, they would have never believed you. Female wrestlers are quite rightly no longer treated as nothing more then eye candy, there is a third WWE brand that grows in popularity with every passing TakeOver, and the company's roster is littered with former Impact Wrestling stars.

Wrestlers such as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and even Kurt Angle. There was a time in WWE's history when Vince McMahon would have turned his nose up at the thought of signing any of them. Now one of them is his WWE Champion. Plus, Impact Wrestling is even referenced to on WWE television from time to time, although sometimes those references feel somewhat accidental.

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One man who many thought would never wrestle in WWE is the aforementioned Samoa Joe. He even spoke about that very fact during his recent guest appearance on Not Sam Wrestling. He also discussed his first days as a WWE Superstar in NXT and the day that Triple H approached him to congratulate him on being the number two merch seller in the entire company after just one week.

via wwe.com

When The Game told Joe about his impressive merchandise numbers, at first he thought he meant in NXT but was then informed that the stats encompassed the entire company. The only man to outsell Joe that week was Kevin Owens who had debuted on the main roster during his angle with John Cena, so a pretty impressive guy to come in second to during your first week on the job.

Fast forward to now and it's hard to imagine a time when Joe wasn't a WWE Superstar. It's plain to see that pretty much everyone backstage thinks quite highly of him, and by the end of the month he might even be WWE Champion. The Destroyer will likely take on AJ Styles for the title at Hell In A Cell and there will be very few fans who wouldn't be happy to see him lift the championship.

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