The former WWE champion had a list of opponents.

One of those stars is Samoa Joe. If you recall, Joe has suffered an injury and as a result, WWE has had to make some changes to their plans.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Joe’s return has been pushed back after he suffered a plantar fascia rupture. The original timeline for his return was early March.

Meltzer reported that instead of returning in early March, he is now slated to return to mid/late March instead. The injury was more severe than originally expected.

Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated recently reported that John Cena requested to wrestle Joe at WrestleMania. However, plans changed as Cena is rumored to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 34.

For many years, wrestling fans wanted to see Joe sign with WWE following his success in Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor. Finally, he signed with the company in 2015.

However, instead of being placed on the main roster right away like many fans thought would happen, WWE decided to place him in NXT.

He was in NXT for nearly two years. He was later called up to the main roster. On the January 30, 2017, episode of Raw, Joe made his official main roster debut by attacking Seth Rollins from behind and aligning himself with Triple H.

If you recall, Joe suffered a knee injury in late August, which has forced him from competing. The former NXT Champion has since missed several events and was been pulled from WWE television.

With this timeline, he could still be back on television for the sports entertainment company in time for WrestleMania, which is slated to take place on April 8, 2018, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This event airs on pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network and is the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in history. Both Raw and SmackDown rosters will be featured on the card.

Joe recently did an interview with WWE Fan France and during the interview, he was asked about his dream WrestleMania opponent. Here is what he had to say (transcript courtesy of SEScoops):

“When it comes to WrestleMania, obviously you’ll take whatever opportunity is put in front of you,” said Joe.

“I’d love to see something like Brock [Lesnar] or Roman [Reigns], Seth [Rollins] or Dean [Ambrose]. Maybe Finn Balor or AJ Styles or John Cena. I mean, the list is really endless. You put any of those guys in front of me and I’ll be more than ready to go.”