The story begins at the 2022 Royal Rumble. Sami Zayn had a bad idea when he eliminated Johnny Knoxville from the iconic matches. The Jackass star announced he would be entering the Royal Rumble match on the January 7, 2022 episode of SmackDown, much to Zayn’s displeasure. On the February 18 episode of SmackDown, Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the Intercontinental Championship for the third time.
After Zayn had invited himself to the red carpet premiere of Jackass Forever, for which he was kicked out, Knoxville then invited himself to Zayn’s celebration for winning the Intercontinental Championship. Knoxville challenged Zayn for the title at WrestleMania 38, but Zayn declined. Three weeks later, however, Zayn would drop the championship to Ricochet after interference from Knoxville.
Later the same night, Zayn would challenge Knoxville to a match at WrestleMania 38, which was made official shortly after. The following week, after Knoxville shared Zayn’s phone number, causing a multitude of people attempting to contact Zayn. Zayn changed the stipulation to an Anything Goes match at WrestleMania, and Knoxville accepted. The match will take place on Mania Night 2 on Sunday, April 3.
SteelChair Mag took part in a media call with Sami Zayn yesterday. He told us about his upcoming Mania match against Johnny Knoxville, becoming a bad guy, his mic skills, coming back to Dallas where he wrestled his first Mania match, and more.
How difficult for you was it to turn your character from a good to a bad guy?
“I guess it was a little bit of an adjustment, like anything else, just because I’ve been a good guy for so long – about 15 years before I ever really did anything like that. It was a little bit of an adjustment at first, but it’s funny because now I find almost this to be just as natural to me as being a good guy, and I’m having a lot of fun right now, so I’m happy with how everything has gone.”
When you were in the independents, as El Generico, you were not speaking a lot. Now as Sami Zayn, you are one of the best on the mic in the entire WWE. Do you have a model when it comes to mic skills? I don’t know, maybe Stone Cold Steve Austin, maybe your friend Kevin Owens?
“I don’t know. There have been people that have compared me to this El Generico character, I’m aware of that. For sure, when I got to WWE, I didn’t have a ton of experience on the microphone in the world of wrestling but, in fact, I was always a talker, so talking did come naturally to me. It just so happened that the character I portrayed on the independents didn’t do a whole lot of talking, but it’s pretty clear to see now that I’ve always kind of been a talker and it comes very natural to me, so it wasn’t a huge adjustment. I didn’t have a major crisis of confidence, I knew that, in time, I would develop and adjust once the microphone was in my hand. I didn’t have too much of a worry about that. I don’t really know to who I would compare my style because I do think I’ve tried to kind of work out a somewhat unique style on the mic, in terms of my cadence and my pacing. Just the way I speak, it’s something that I’ve kind of worked on. I don’t know who to compare it to, but certainly, there are people that I admire on the microphone, and I guess one of the first names that jump to my mind is Rowdy Roddy Piper.”
Do you feel like putting together a match with Johnny Knoxville, with everything that it has been representing, is one of the biggest challenges of your career?
“No, I wouldn’t call it a challenge in that respect. As far as building the match, building to the match, and building anticipation for the match, it’s actually kind of the opposite. I view it more as a breath of fresh air where we’re able to kind of do all this creative stuff that you don’t normally get to do when you’re building a normal wrestling match because Johnny Knoxville is not a normal wrestler, so we get to do all these fun things that we normally wouldn’t do when you’re building just a normal wrestling match. Actually, I found it to be a lot of fun so far, like the stuff we did where I went to Hollywood and I showed up on the red carpet and they had me thrown out, when I texted him, and then he got my phone number and put it on the airplane and flew it over Los Angeles and it went out online and then me answering all these calls. Now I went to his hometown in Knoxville, and I’m interviewing people on the streets, so it’s all really different stuff that you don’t really get to see very often, and it’s just a really unique way of building a rivalry and building interest in a match I’ve just found it to be so much fun. I’ve gotten to do a lot of really fun creative things but, when it comes to the actual physical part of the match, that’s a whole other story, we’ll have to see how that all goes but, in building interest for the match, I’ve had a lot of fun.”
This year’s “WrestleMania” is taking place in Dallas, which is the place of your first “WrestleMania” (“Mania 32”) as a main roster guy. What are your memories of that moment?
“Obviously, it was a big deal because it was my first WrestleMania, and I got to share the ring with Kevin Owens, who I think everyone knows by now, he and I started together, and we have this very, very long history, our careers are completely linked to each other. To be able to share both of our first WrestleMania in the ring with each other, in a ladder match, even though there were other guys involved, was very, very special. I had also one of my favourite matches of my career that weekend in my last NXT match against Shinsuke Nakamura, so it was a very special weekend. I have very, very fond memories, and now it’s so funny to come back 6 years later and just to see where my character has gone and the evolution of it. Now I’m wrestling a celebrity in the form of Johnny Knoxville in an Anything Goes Match, so it’s very different from the first time, but still very, very exciting.”
Are you confident leading into this “Mania” match?
“I think, for sure. He doesn’t know what he’s getting into the ring with. I think this is a big undertaking for him more than it is for me. I mean, for sure, I have to adjust to the fact that this guy is not a normal wrestler, he’s not a wrestler, but this guy can take a lot of punishment, as we’ve seen over the course of his career with Jackass, and he’s a master of pranks and stunts and gags and things like that. So, how does that translate into the form of a wrestling match? We’ll have to see, but I think that there’s a much bigger challenge for him than it is for me because it’s very hard to step into a wrestling ring for the first time when you’ve never done it, no matter how athletic you are or anything like that. Johnny Knoxville’s a famous guy and all that, but he’s not necessarily an athlete, so I think this is a big deal and a big adjustment for him, and we’ll have to see how he does. For me, I think it’s more a case of just having to be mindful of what he’s good at, which is the gags and the pranks and all that, especially now that the match is Anything Goes, I have to be mindful of that, but I still think at the end of the day this is a bigger challenge for him than it is for me.”
You’ve played the Conspiracy Theorist since the pandemic and it was a big success. How much fun do you have to play it?
“I’ve had a lot of fun, for sure, since coming back from the pandemic and all that, playing that character, doing the stuff with the documentary. All of that was a lot of fun, and I felt like I had a fair amount of creative input into it, which makes it so much better when you feel like you’re getting a piece of your own ideas in there, so it’s been a lot of fun honestly, since coming back from the pandemic. I think, in terms of character and persona and all, that it’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever done honestly.”
Follow Sami Zayn on @SamiZayn.
“WrestleMania 38” will be streaming LIVE from Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, starting at midnight in the UK. UK fans can catch all the action on the WWE Network and BT Sport Box Office. A kick-off show will air both nights at 11 PM GMT on the WWE YouTube channel.
Thanks to Alex Sutton, Giovanni and Vincent – All pics courtesy of WWE