WWE Superstar Sami Zayn recently spoke with the Dallas Morning News to promote WrestleMania 38.
During the interview, Zayn discussed his matches at NXT Takeover: Dallas and WrestleMania 32, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his match against Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT TakeOver: Dallas: “It’s one of my favorite matches of all-time, for sure – and I’ve been pretty lucky to have quite a few good ones that have really stuck around in my memory. But that’s got to be on the top of the list. I get reminded by fans still very, very often – I’d say weekly, at least – where people still mention it. So, any time you get to have a match like that that stands the test of time, that holds up in people’s memories – what more can you ask for, right? That’s what you strive for.”
On how he looks back at the match: “Very, very, very, very fondly. … And the amazing thing is I just beat Nakamura for the Intercontinental championship even though Johnny Knoxville cost me that championship just a week or two weeks later – I don’t want to get into all that now because my blood will start to boil, and we don’t need that. I just beat Nakamura for the Intercontinental championship, and the match that we had in Dallas was so unique and you can never recreate that. And I realized that when I was getting ready to have that match with Nakamura for the Intercontinental championship. The circumstances that led to that match making it what it was, it was like lightning in a bottle and you just can’t duplicate that. It was my last night in NXT, his first night, that arena in Dallas, the crowd was red hot – there was so many variables, the stars lined up just right to make it really one of the most special matches in my career and in my life. I still look back on it very fondly. I don’t know, I think if I had to show people a real piece of art that I was proud of I think that would be the one.”
On making his WrestleMania debut in Arlington at WrestleMania 32: “Like you said, it was an amazing weekend for me. Those were two very special matches. They were both great in different ways, but I think that ladder match was especially special because it was both my first WrestleMania and Kevin Owens’ first WrestleMania, and everybody knows how we came up together as friends and enemies and everything, and how our careers have been inextricably linked to each other’s the past 20 years. So, it was very special and sentimental in that regard. And the match itself was actually, I thought, great. If you watch it back now, it’s a really good match. It’s hard to stick out on WrestleMania, though, because so many great matches happen. So, I don’t know if that one lives in the fans’ minds as much as the Nakamura match, but it’s certainly a match I’m very proud of. And even in that moment, to kind of square off with Kevin, have this face to face going blow for blow, punch for punch with Kevin in front of 100,000 people, it was kind of a surreal and special moment. What a special weekend it was for me.”
On his reaction to Kevin Owens calling out Steve Austin: “I guess I’m seeing it through a bit of a different lens than most. I’m sure 95% of the people are just so pumped to see Austin coming back – and they’re right to do it – but for me, knowing my friend and knowing him early in life and knowing what a huge influence and a huge impact Steve Austin had on him, I’m just so happy for him that he gets to do this. It’s so surreal. And I know it’s surreal for him.
“You know, working in WWE is a strange thing. These people that you’ve been fans of growing up as a child and had these massive impacts on you growing up, eventually they become your peers. And it’s a strange thing. And then what ends up happening is you sort of lose your perspective sometimes because you get on the hamster wheel of the WWE lifestyle – the busy and difficult things – you kind of get tunnel vision and you kind of forget sometimes how special it is to be here rubbing elbows with the people that you once looked up to.
“But I know this is going to be huge for Kevin, and I’m very happy for him. So I think I’m looking at it that way. And I know that when it finally happens I’m sure I’ll put my fan goggles back on and just appreciate it for what it is, but at the moment just hearing about it – I’m really, really happy for him.”
