At this past Saturday’s Night of Champions 2023 pay-per-view event, Sami Zayn made his first appearance at a WWE show in Saudi Arabia. The main event saw Zayn and Kevin Owens defeat the team of Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa to retain their WWE Tag-Team titles.
Speaking on a recent edition of the “After the Bell with Corey Graves” podcast, the WWE Superstar commented on how much it meant for him to travel to the Middle East, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how much it meant for him to travel to the Middle East: “I’m Arabic, I’m Muslim. That’s my part of the world. I understand those people. Those are my people. When I went there, I got to go to Mecca, which is just a surreal experience. And I also saw my uncles that I hadn’t seen in 25 years, I had cousins that I hadn’t seen in 25 years, I met my great-uncle who I didn’t even know existed. So it was pretty heavy in a lot of ways.”
On main eventing the Saudi Arabia show: “I always felt like I would have been the natural representative for those shows [in Saudi Arabia] and I just wasn’t. So it was good to finally be put in that position, and in a main event spot, and opposite Roman and Solo, and the story that’s kind of been carrying the company for a minute now. It felt like it all just kind of came together perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to go back.”
