WWE star Sami Zayn was a recent guest on the Wrestling Compadres Slamcast, which you can listen to in full at this link. The following are some interview highlights.
On How He’s Feeling Since the Brand Split:
So far so good. It happened right after Battleground, and my rivalry with Kevin came to an end, so then the extension is in effect, and I don’t know if this is a good analogy, but I felt like a divorcee, and so much of my energy went into this divorce, when I divorced myself from Kevin Owens that now I’m sort of like this single mom and kind of ready to get out there. That first month I wasn’t ready to “date” and now I think I’m ready to go back out there.
On Wanting to Face Brock Lesnar:
I’ve been beat up pretty badly back in my day. I have been in the ring with Kevin Owens for about 12 years, I’m used to getting beat up. Obviously Brock has done his damage, I’m sure I can get a good shot or two, and I believe it’s all about putting on a compelling match, and I believe that would happen with the two of us.
On How NXT Has Grown Over the Years Compared to When He First Started:
There has been so much change, and I believe that we, as a generation, are responsible for that change, and I think the matches we were having were more compelling than us carrying kegs like they used to do in the golden days. It’s a great feeling to kick down that door, which is what we did at NXT. When I first started with NXT, NXT wasn’t really relevant or all that good, and there was a lot of constraints, and the culture was different. Hunter was still in charge, but there were people around him that were in charge. The mentality is a lot different now, where you let your wings expand and sore with the eagles, swing for the fences, back then it wasn’t really like that, and there was sort of this articulations going on, and we kind of slowly kind of kicked down that door to make it as rewarding as it is now. It is very rewarding and gratifying experience.
On His Final NXT Match with Nakamura:
It was a perfect ending to my NXT career. I remember hearing about it before that my time with NXT will be coming to an end. I really had this vision to going back to Full Sail and making this major speech where they can use it for television or they can not use it for TV, but I felt that the building at Full Sail University was responsible, as one of the key buildings of my career, I’ve had a number of arenas and venues that were important to my career. The Legion Hall in Reseda, California is very important building in my career, a handful of places, and Full Sail was one of those places for me. I felt like I needed to address it, but then after the match with Nakamura, I felt like that was it for me, I couldn’t show my face there and felt the closure that I needed. Can’t go back after that.
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