During a recent appearance on the “After the Bell with Corey Graves” podcast, Sami Zayn commented on his frustrations with comparing the current WWE product to the Attitude Era, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his frustrations with comparing current WWE to the Attitude Era and why the Attitude Era wouldn’t work now: “This is me getting a little temperamental between the constant comparisons between today’s era and the Attitude Era. It’s apples and oranges. That couldn’t have existed now. The Attitude Era, if it was constrained by the same constraints we have today, would not have existed. I don’t necessarily think they would have had a better batting average. The list of names you go through, all legends, but I’m saying it took a very specific environment for those people to become legends and for them to thrive.”
On how Goldberg and other Attitude Era stars would fare in today’s era: “Goldberg debuts today in NXT, is he going to be [the same] Bill Goldberg? My guess is probably not. Bill Goldberg had to fill a very specific vacuum that only existed at that exact time for him to be in the spot that he’s in. I hope I’m not taking a shot at Bill here by saying I’m pretty sure he’d be the first to acknowledge that this guy isn’t exactly known for his 5-star matches or anything. He’d steamroll through guys. So, if he came around at a slightly different time when work rate was far more important, he might have been left in the dust or people might not have taken a second look at him. It’s so circumstantial.”
On the unpredictability of the Attitude Era and how it compares to current WWE: “It’s a lot of luck, and recognition of that luck is important when you talk about everything. Your own individual success and the success of something like the Attitude Era. It was a lot of luck, a lot of things lining up at just the right place at just the right time. Regardless of even if you take the rose-colored glasses away, the one thing that they really had going for them at that time was this unpredictability. You didn’t know what they were going to do next week and I think that was a big part of the intrigue. That’s something that I feel like now, with a wide-open playing field right now and all these new characters and not knowing where things are going to line up, I find that exciting. That’s what I like as a fan. I don’t want to be able to predict what’s going to happen. Even with Roman who’s firing on all cylinders, I don’t want to be able to look at Roman and go, ‘I know he’s going to be champion for another six months.’ I want to be kept on my toes. I think there’s a great opportunity right now on SmackDown, even with RAW, they have amazing talent, but with SmackDown, I feel like it’s wide open and reminds me of what SmackDown was years and years ago when they first did the brand split, where it almost became this opportunity for a lot of guys to become stars.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)