The latest episode of “Jimmy Jacobs Doesn’t Know” features Jimmy Jacobs having an in-depth conversation with Sami Zayn about philosophy about life and Zayn being proactive in worldly causes, particularly his “Sami For Syria” campaign.
In the chat, Zayn talks about the guilt he feels being so well off while so many other people have it rough, but also touches upon something Titus O’Neil once told him about being an activist and how Zayn sometimes gets the itch to quit wrestling to do activism full-time. Quotes from the interview are below:
Sami Zayn on learning from Titus O’Neil’s experience as an activist:
“One time I remember he was telling me of about how he was trying to round up like a donation or something like this this and he was talking to some pretty rich guy who obviously had some influence and I’m probably butchering the story, but I remember he said this like that really stuck with me where he said something like the guy saw what Titus was doing, he saw the scene around him, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m willing to give some money,’ and Titus said to him, ‘Listen, I don’t want your,’ (I’m gonna brutalize this) but it was something along the lines of like, ‘I don’t want your money, I want your investment. I don’t want you to write a check, walk away, feel good that you just did something today, I want you to invest in this cause. Emotionally.’ Right? It’s not just about the money. If you’re emotionally invested the money might be once, might be twice, God knows what. ‘I want you to invest, not just financially. I want you to invest in this cause.’ Right? Man, I just feel overwhelmed by the amount of causes out there that my heart bleeds for and you just can’t fix them all, man.”
On wanting to do more with activism:
[In reference to his “Sami For Syria” campaign] “Yes, okay this was good, but God there’s just so many more people to help and I wish I could help them all. I don’t know man, every now and again I just get this rush, this wave over me like, ‘I should just quit wrestling and become an activist’ or ‘I should just quit wrestling and just like move to help people in under privileged countries or in war-torn countries.’ I just feel like dedicating myself to a cause far more noble than pro wrestling even though I know pro wrestling helps people on some level, but I don’t know man. I just don’t know. ‘Sami Zayn also doesn’t know.'”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
