When Booker T broke the news on his Hall of Fame podcast that Sami Zayn was disappointed by the response he received to his match with Chad Gable on RAW, it came as a bit of a surprise. Sure, the conditions by which the reporting happened were totally cool, as Booker and Zayn ended up sitting in the same row on a plane headed to Orlando and had a conversation as a result, but did the “Underdog from the Underground” really want to put those feelings out into the world?
Well, Josh Martinez of the Superstar Crossover podcast decided to ask the not-so-generico one that very question, and needless to say, the answer was incredibly interesting.
“Well, I was a little surprised to read that. Because I basically bumped into Booker on the plane and we were just sitting next to each other. So, we're just talking. It's pretty weird to see that on the internet. All this to say, no, I was very happy with the performance, because he was talking about the performance itself, the match itself. I was like, ‘Yeah, I was very pleased with the match. It's just unfortunate that it felt like the reaction to the wind itself was a little split, if not a little more skewed towards Chad' because we did a great job of building Chad, and he's done a great job of building himself. When you're a good guy or whatever, or a bad guy, and you know where you're headed, you just want the full investment, right? You want the full scope of the audience's emotional investment. I felt like this was an interesting story because it splits the emotional investment in two. So, you're only getting 50% of the pie, right? That's just an interesting dynamic because it makes it more compelling,” Sami Zayn explained via Fightful.
“For sure, as a guy whose job it is to rally the entire audience behind him, which is what I sometimes feel like my job is as a good guy, I was a little let down that I felt like I couldn't get the entire audience to rally behind me. At least, that's not even entirely true. During the match itself, it feels like they're very happy and invested in the whole thing. But the online backlash the day after, just with people feeling a little disappointed for Chad, which is very understandable. It just was a little deflating, you know? But again, this is just something I was kind of articulating to him as to just kind of shoot the breeze on the plane. So I think maybe once it gets out online, it seems like a bigger deal than it is. That's all I was articulating to him.”
After being the ultimate babyface hero in 2023, with some fans preferring him over Cody Rhodes as the man who should have dethroned Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39, Zayn now finds himself on the opposite end of the spectrum, with some fans desperate to see his match altered to add Gable into the fray. Still, at his heart, Zayn is compelling not because of his in-ring work but because of his underdog presentation, so who knows, maybe the match will exceed expectations and earn a few apologies for the 39-year-old for good measure, too.
Sami Zayn is pumped to grapple Gunther at WrestleMania 40.
While some fans may not be particularly excited to see Sami Zayn wrestle Gunther at WrestleMania 40 with the Intercontinental Championship on the line, one person who decidedly is stoked on the booking is the “Underdog from the Underdog” himself, as he's been fighting hard for a chance to represent at the “Showcase of the Immortals.”
Discussing his match in an interview with Sportskeeda, Zayn acknowledged that, while he isn't the top match on the show, he's excited that his efforts earned him a potentially history-making match in South Philadelphia.
“I think it's pretty big for sure. Coming off of last year where I found myself in a really just… you know, let's call it right place, right time. But I caught a lot of steam and a lot of momentum heading into WrestleMania over the six months or so leading into it and ended up in the main event,” Sami Zayn told Sportskeeda via Fightful. “Anytime you do something big, you know, I think in anything, I think in any field, not just as a wrestler or an artist or whatever, but when you're able to accomplish something, there's always sort of like, oh, now what, on the other side of it, you know? It's hard to sometimes keep that up or wonder what's next, what could you do to top it or anything like that and if you watch WWE, you see how fast things move and i'm just, I feel very lucky to be in a pretty good position a year later challenging uh you know, the longest reigning, most dominant Intercontinental champion of all time and if you're not in that top, top match with, let's say, Cody at Roman or The Rock or whatever now, I'd say this is the biggest match outside of that that you could possibly want to be in. So I'm pretty grateful to find myself in that spot, and I'm excited about it.”
After making history at WrestleMania 39 by dethroning the longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champion of all time alongside Kevin Owens, could Zayn back that up by ending Gunther's all-time run with the IC Title? Only time will tell, but if Cody Rhodes does the unthinkable in the main event of WrestleMania 40, Gunther would be a logical first feud for the top title, so the groundwork is there for a massive win by the ultimate WWE underdog.
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