Sami Zayn: “You’ll Never Find Another ‘Red-Haired Arab Canadian Who’s Wrestled Around the World'”

The last month of Sami Zayn’s career has been a whirlwind of change. During Wrestlemania weekend, he had one of the best matches of the year (if not the best) against Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT Takeover: Dallas.

Then he made his Wrestlemania debut two nights later, and now he’s made his full transition onto WWE’s main roster and tonight, he’ll finally face Kevin Owens again, at “Payback.”

On “Talk is Jericho”, Sami Zayn joined Y2J to talk about his match with Nakamura at Takeover, what it was like to be injured and watch Kevin Owens rise in WWE, and much more.

You can listen to the full interview right here. Below are some of the highlights:

Did Sami Zayn feel depressed during his recovery time last year? 

“I’ve gotten better at it I guess—uh, no. I was depressed. Who am I kidding? I was horrible.” He continues on: “What made it worse—and this is going to make me sound a little petty, but it’s the truth—is that it happened right after Kevin got called up. Kevin got called up and I heard a couple rumors about some other guys getting called up. And it really kind of broke my spirits a little it. And then when I heard that one particular person was going to get called up, I remember just losing it. Like—screaming with tears in my throat. It was petty but it was a natural feeling.” Jericho agrees and says that everyone’s been there. He remembers feeling the same way when he was toiling away in the minors waiting for his shot with ECW, WCW, and eventually WWE. Sami says that there are no spots anymore. He says no one is going to take anyone else’s “spot,” because there’s an individual spot for everyone. He says, “I remember when Del Rio left and all of the sudden they were scrambling to fill his spot. Well—how many 6’3”, good-looking, Mexicans who can speak fluent English and wrestle a main event WWE match are out there? Not many. That was his spot.” Sami jokes that you’ll also never find another “red-haired Arab Canadian who’s wrestled around the world.”

Did he meet Shinsuke Nakamura before NXT Takeover: Dallas? 

“I think I met him literally once,” Sami says, referring to Shinsuke Nakamura. “We’ve had very parallel careers. I think I started two months before him or something. Fourteen years each, but he was always in New Japan and I never worked New Japan. So we never worked. We met maybe once. We never touched. And I remember Matt Bloom—who’s the head of the PC now—saying ‘You guys might want to get in the ring at the PC for a little while. I don’t want the first time you guys touch to be in this big match.’ And we both said the same thing, like ‘No, no, no. We prefer that.’ Which is a dangerous thing, but it’s what we know.”

Source: DailyWrestlingNews.com

Do you think Sami Zayn is going to be a fan favorite on the main roster eventually?