Sami Zayn says the idea that wrestlers grow up dreaming of main eventing WrestleMania is “BS a little bit.”
Chris Van Vliet asked Zayn on Insight whether he dreamed of becoming WWE Champion as a kid. Zayn said he didn’t think about it in those terms.
“People are like, it was my dream to main event WrestleMania. I’m like, hang, just let’s hold on for a sec, okay? Like this whole main event in WrestleMania thing became a talking point, like in the last 10 years,” Zayn said. “When you’re a kid, you’re not thinking. At least I’m not. You’re not thinking in terms of like commercial success. You’re just thinking about like I want to do that.”
“I’ll take it back. I won’t speak for other people, even though the WrestleMania main event narrative like is BS a little bit, but whatever,” he continued. “I never looked at it like I want to be the champion. I just looked at it like I want to do that, and I want to do that well, and I want to do it well enough to invoke the same reactions that my favorites get.”
“It’s not clearly articulated when you’re 10 or 11 of like I want to main event WrestleMania and be the WWE champion. Like it’s not that cleanly articulated. It’s just like, wow, I want to do that,” Zayn said.
Zayn has main evented WrestleMania himself. He and Kevin Owens beat The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania 39 in 2023.
Sami Zayn on The Undertaker’s ‘Never Be Satisfied’ message
When Van Vliet asked whether the goal then becomes main eventing two, three or four WrestleManias, Zayn called it “a slippery slope.” He said he has “all the respect in the world for the Undertaker,” but disagrees with the advice he remembers The Undertaker giving in his WWE Hall of Fame speech to never be satisfied.
“The difference between being aspirational and not being satisfied. I know that sounds like a small difference, but it could be a chasm,” Zayn said. “Because if you’re not satisfied, then you’re just not appreciating what you’re doing while you’re doing it.”
“I think you should be satisfied if you’re doing good work and you’re proud of it,” he continued. “Is there more I’d like to achieve? Absolutely. And can it be aspirational? And obviously, I am aspirational, or I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair right now talking to you.”
Zayn said he heard the same kind of message when he first arrived in NXT.
“I know the messaging is correct in what they’re saying of like have that hunger, strive for more, but the way it was sometimes phrased or packaged would be, if you don’t want to be the next John Cena, you don’t belong in this building,” Zayn said. “Well, there’s only one John Cena. There’s 100 recruits here. That’s a recipe for 99 miserable people.”
“We are so lucky. We’re so lucky if you’re doing this at this level, you’re one of the luckiest people in the world,” he added.
Zayn, a two-time WWE Champion, defends the Undisputed WWE Championship against Trick Williams on Friday’s SmackDown in Charleston, West Virginia. He has also said winning the title a second time felt like validation.
