Samoa Joe Training Muay Thai And Catch Wrestling With Dave Batista And Josh Rafferty; Is 'The Animal' Prepping For His Role In 'Guardians Of The Galaxy 2'?

Looks like Josh Rafferty is not keen on taking acting gigs these days; instead the former Ultimate Fighter season one competitor is training with well-known WWE Superstars.

Samoa Joe took to his Twitter on Wednesday, July 8 to post a photo of him training muay thai and catch wrestling with Dave Batista.

Training Day #MuayThai #CatchWrestling pic.twitter.com/O8YISAvGWU

— Samoa Joe (@SamoaJoe) July 7, 2015

"Training Day #MuayThai #CatchWrestling," Joe captioned the photo.

Samoa Joe and Batista were training with actor Josh Rafferty in California, according to reports on Wrestling Inc.

More than an actual pro wrestling work out, it sounds more like an MMA session but "The Samoan Submission Machine" is no stranger to MMA as he has trained in MMA for years. That being said, Joe is not scheduled to step into the Octagon any time soon, but that doesn't stop him from keeping fit with the training.

One of the reasons why Joe comes across as so legitimate in the ring is because he works several MMA aspects of his training into his pro wrestling work.

Dave Batista too had a brief MMA career and he even won his one lower league fight back in 2012, according to records on What Culture.

Batista however didn't stick around the sport citing his age. He is now 46-year-old and completely focused on his successful movie career. "The Animal" is expected to reprise his role as Drax in "Guardians of the Galaxy 2," which is slated for a 2017 release.

Probably Dave may be training with Joe to get into shape for that muscular role.

As far as Joe is concerned, he is now a fully-fledged NXT superstar. He looks to still be on course for a mega fight with Kevin Owens at some point. But that's not all; he'll be one of the main attractions for NXT's big event at Brooklyn's Barclays Center the night before SummerSlam.