Sami Zayn Talks “NXT Takeover: R Evolution,” Kevin Owens, WrestleMania

NXT Champion Sami Zayn is set for a major match Wednesday night, as he takes on Kevin Owens for his title. He spoke with The Chad Dukes Wrestling Show about his recent run and much more.

Zayn commented on winning the title at “NXT Takeover: R Evolution:”

“Professionally, if anybody had followed my story going into the match, it was the culmination of like a year of chasing for this championship so the payoff was huge for the fans.  It’s funny because we’re essentially two good guys, two fan favorites, we’re popular with that audience, but then I think they had just been pining to see me win after coming up short so many times, coming so close and not quite making it, that the atmosphere in the building was just electric.”

He hit on his upcoming match with Owens, given their history:

“The amount of history we have, Kevin Owens and myself, over the years, never mind guys like Cesaro or Seth Rollins or Daniel Bryan who I met on the independents, Kevin and I broke out of Montreal, the little Montreal independent bubble, in front of 50 people in basements, bars, and pool halls.  We broke out of that together.  Our names have been synonymous with each other for our entire careers from 2002 on or 2003 on.  The connection is very, very deep.  It was a very special night [Takeover: R Evolution] for me because obviously, I had sort of arrived  in my own sort of way by winning this NXT Championship.  I felt like it was a coming out party of sorts.  Here I am and a the same time Kevin Owens had debuted earlier that night.  So it was like this is our night. Like, holy crap here we are, both of us in WWE.  You’re here now, I’m here now, I’ve got the title, we are doing this, and then BAM!  So to say that this match is personal or means a lot to me is the understatement of the century here.”

He also commented on rumors of a potential NXT Championship match at WrestleMania:

“While at the same time, it’s so funny people forget it’s PG, it’s a PG product, but it’s so real and gritty and people almost lose sight of that.  The whole point I’m trying to get at is, it’s sort of carved out its own little niche within this giant wrestling company that is the WWE.  We’ve almost carved out our own underground following, it almost has a cult following, which is so strange to say because it’s part of the world’s biggest wrestling company.

So, I think if you were to have an NXT World Championship Match at WrestleMania while obviously for me personally I would be a huge thrill, I don’t think you can necessarily capture the magic of what NXT is and really harness it and put it on full display for the world to understand it, on such a grand scale like that.”

More from the interview can be found here.

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