During a recent interview with Cheap Heat, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn talked about a range of topics including this weekend's WrestleMania 38 event and his real-life best friend Kevin Owens.
The one man who will compete in this year's "Mania, Logan Paul" was the focal point of a feud between Zayn and Owens for last year's show. Although he's happy that The Miz and Paul are getting a chance to wrestle on the show, he doesn't feel like they're competing for the best.
"I think Kevin Owens and myself, a lot of our success, we were very healthy, I would say, competing with each other and I think we pushed each other to be a little bit better," Zayn said. said. "And every time I was getting some steam, he'd start doing some stuff and he'd get some stuff done, and it made that game.
"So I think there's a healthy level of take-and-take competition. I also reject the idea that competition is what drives everything and to see life as a competition, or life as a competition." To see, you know, Midge is my coworker and Logan Paul is someone I've worked with. I don't see him as the enemy, you know? Let's all just calm down here."
One thing that Sami Zayn thinks is interesting about his friend Owens is that Kevin taught himself English while watching pro wrestling. KO learned specifically by listening to Jim Ross do commentary, so he thought some of the signature phrases were common English words.
"We speak English, but French is his mother tongue. It's surprising, in fact, that Kevin doesn't have a Quebec, francophone accent, whatever. It's pretty surprising because usually when you speak English to a Quebecer When you hear speaking, it's their accent, they talk like that. And I'm not kidding, it's just, there's an accent, it's zero.
"And amazingly, I don't know if you know it, but he's said in other interviews, he didn't speak a word of English until he was 11. He learned English by watching wrestling. Jim Ross taught him English, So he thought some of the wrestling-isms were really generic words. Like, he'd be like, 'Oh yeah, that was a real slogan,' like it's a generic term, you know? Wrestling really gave him a Taught the whole language."
Some of the stars who have moved on from WWE, Cesaro, Brian Danielson and CM Punk for a while, are some of the people Zayn credits with paving the way for younger athletes to succeed. Whether it was skillful in-ring skills or being vocal on the microphone, every man made an impact on Sami Zayn in some way or another.
"He paved the way, I think," said Zayn. "And it's hard to put it in sequential order or to say that here or there, or whatever had a big impact. Because then, if I could break my own horn here for a moment, that would make me really Must do, yeah, well, have you seen how great I am?
"You know, I think NXT, I think my signing really — and again, I'm not going to take full credit here because it was Hunter who recognized that he was onto something with me. Once we The way fans were adopting me, especially when I did that match with Cesaro. So I can't, again, it's not me, Cesaro; Cesaro being a main roster talent, we Wiggle room allowed for the kind of match that opened the door to becoming an NXT style.
"And that, I think, opened the door for a lot of other people. Of course, I don't think they're going to sign me if Daniel Bryan didn't lead the way, if CM Punk didn't lead the way, if the others didn't. The guys didn't lead the way. But I think Cesaro is coming down the main roster and wrestling me, just, I think that match had a lot to do with a style that opened up. And that Shelly helped create NXT, and opened the door to a lot of other people as well.”
If you use any citations in this article, please credit Cheap Heat with h/t to Wrestling Inc. for transcription.
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