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After finally ridding himself of his Chad Gable problem, at least for now, at Clash at the Castle, besting the leader of Alpha Academy in yet another battle for the Intercontinental Championship, Sami Zayn returned to RAW a victor. Sure, he would eventually have another challenger, and this new foe may be bigger and badder than his last, but in Corpus Christi, the “Underdog from the Underground” was treated like a hero, and celebrated for his efforts as such.
… but then Bron Breakker emerged from the back one week removed from basically ending Ricochet in the parking lot, and suddenly, things are looking awful dire for the IC Champion and his prospects of keeping his reign alive at Money in the Bank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada next month.
After securing a massive win over Sheamus after declaring his intentions for the IC Title heading into the future, noting that while Zayn may be an experienced champion, he is the future of wrestling and thus has to hold the belt for the sake of the industry.
“Now, Sami Zayn. Look Sami, you've had an incredible career, all right? You've been on top of WWE for over a decade. You've main-evented WrestleMania, won World Tag Team Gold, multiple-time Intercontinental Champion. There's not very much around here that you haven't accomplished. But you wanna know what the difference between you and me is? Is that you are well fed. You've made millions of dollars since being here. And truth be told, you don't need the Intercontinental Championship at this stage of your career; that Intercontinental Championship needs me,” Bron Breakker declared via Wrestle Zone
“Because, whether you like it or not, Bron Breakker is the future of WWE. I am carrying it on my back to ensure that WWE has a home 10, 15 years from today. Whether you like it or not, Sami, I'm coming for the Intercontinental Championship because it's my job, my legacy, to create my own legacy for me, for Bron Breakker, and to carry my family's on. In the process of doing so, I will do whatever it takes to get there because it is what I have to do.”
Is Breakker really the man to defeat Zayn for the IC Title, kicking the “Underdog from the Underground” to a new storyline potentially alongside the Alpha Academy in the lead-up to another long and dominant heel run with the Workman's Title? Maybe not a month ago, but now? Now, the second-generation Steiner is one of the hottest acts in WWE and could use Ricochet leaving the promotion as the jumping-off point to an incredible main roster run.
Sami Zayn believes he will be linked to Johnny Knoxville forever.
Elsewhere on his promotional tour in the lead-up to Money in the Bank, Sami Zayn stopped by Fightful to talk all things wrestling in 2024 and his pursuits inside the medium and out, including his comedy show at Netflix is a Joke Festival that was interupted by Johnny Knoxville.
While Zayn appreciated his match with Knoxville, calling it a career highlight in the past, at this point, he's getting tired of the Jacka** leader, even if they will undoubtedly continue with this feud forever.
“That was really a precursor to the Bloodline, quite literally, because that story, the humiliation coming out of that match was what, from a character and storyline perspective, was the fuel for respect that the character needed to seek out the Bloodline. From a creative perspective, it was the precursor because of the mental energy and creative juices into how to construct a story and how to get us there. A lot of really unique things like him putting out my phone number and me getting calls and answering FaceTime from the fans. There is no other match we'll do where part of the build to the match is answering calls from fans while in the bathtub. I've never done it before, I'll never do it again. I kind of got addicted to it at one point where I was doing these loops, driving town to town from live event to live event, and the phone wouldn't stop. It would kill the drive. Three hours, just answering calls,” Sami Zayn told Fightful.
“I grew to enjoy it because it was an interaction with fans in a way that simply didn't exist. It never existed before and it will never exist again where you have a wrestler's number, you call, and he answers,” he said. “I would start in character sometimes, ‘What do you want? Stop calling!' ‘This isn't Sami Zayn, is it?' ‘You know it's Sami Zayn, you called me!' ‘Oh my God, it's actually him.' You would hear the excitement of them getting their friends and family into the room. ‘It's him, he picked up.' It was exciting for me to feel their excitement. It's such a unique thing. I don't see that happening ever again. I was so lucky to be part of something like that. When it comes to the match itself, there is also the constraints of time, especially with WrestleMania being a heavier show. There were more ideas I wanted to do in respect to the actual match itself, but you don't get time. I'm still very proud of what came out. In some manner of speaking, I'll be tied to Johnny Knoxville for the rest of my days and him tied to me, at least in the wrestling world.”
Will Knoxville hop on a flight to Toronto to interfere with Zayn's second comedy show? Or was that interaction more of a marriage of convenience, as the show was in the entertainment capital of the world? Either way, it's safe to say fans haven't seen the last of Knoxville in WWE or Zayn feuding the the “Bad Grandpa” in one medium or another, as some feuds are simply too powerful, meaningful, and transcendent to leave by the wayside for some new feud of the month.
