As noted, Sami Zayn recently appeared as a guest on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast for an in-depth interview. Featured below are some additional highlights.
On Becky Lynch’s use of Twitter: “I noticed Becky Lynch, who has really blown up recently too, right?” Zayn began, “And she’s using Twitter in a very witty way. She’s a very witty person. And she’s using it in a really cool way and she’s getting herself really over. But I don’t know if I would do it anymore, even if I was a heel. I wouldn’t want to use it to cut people down and stuff. But I’m like, ‘do you know what? I’m contributing to a toxic culture, to a toxic swirl of s–t and I don’t want to contribute to it anymore.'”
On the reason why he quit eating meat: “This is another huge thing in my life – I stopped eating meat, and I don’t preach about it. I just eventually had to confront myself with the reality that I was being a total hypocrite. And I’m not saying everyone who eats meat is a hypocrite. I ate meat my entire life, but I’m saying I confronted my own hypocrisy by saying, ‘well, look. Obviously, I don’t agree with the industrialization, how these animals are treated, blah, blah, blah, and I feel sorry for them. But then, I go home and I stuff [meat] in my [mouth]. And I’m like, ‘whoa, okay. I’m a part of the problem.’ And then I reached a point where I was like, ‘I’m not playing ball anymore. I don’t agree with these industries. I don’t agree with how they do business. You’re not getting my money.’ And that’s it. I feel way better because I think a lot of unhappiness, I’ll put on my Sami Zayn amateur Canadian PhD in psychoanalysis hat on here, but I just think a lot of people, there is some unhappiness there because people aren’t living in line with their values because it’s a very hard thing to do to.”
On how his new mindset will mesh with WWE culture: “That’s something I’m concerned about, yes. Absolutely. Dude, you’re so right and I’ve got to tell you it’s very funny that you should ask me that because that [has] actually been one of the big [questions]. And this isn’t me burying the company, but it’s the culture of the company. It’s the culture of showbiz and succeeding and just the concept of ambition and ego and it’s all dressed up. We use very nice words to dress up some pretty ugly things. Like being ambitious, it’s a good quality, but you can use that as an excuse to be an egotistical piece of garbage. Do whatever you’ve got to do, but justify it by saying, ‘oh, that’s just business.’ So yeah, it’s very funny because [Jericho has] been touching on something that I’ve been thinking about a lot.”
On how letting go of ego will factor into his WWE career and fear about slipping into the same routine and/or getting beaten down by the travel schedule and grind of WWE life: “One of the big things I’ve been working on in this time of reflection or introspection, whatever you want to call it, has been letting go of ego or not letting ego, egotism, sort of drive me, but I’m like, ‘oh man, how is this going to serve me in this company?’ [Jericho is] right. And I don’t know. I really don’t know. We’ll see. I haven’t overthought it, to be honest with you, because I have this other thing that I’m worried about, which is, ‘once you go back, you just fall into the same trap’ sort of. So I have two worries. One is how is letting go of ego going to serve me in getting ahead in my career in the WWE bubble. I don’t really think it was a factor in my indie career as much. It was really just do your thing and talent takes you where it goes. WWE is a bit of a different animal. I haven’t overthought it. You end up going back and your intentions are good at first, but then, ‘oh, brother, we got eight minutes’ and ‘we just lost a [segment] – just do it, just do it.'”
On fans criticism of WWE writers: “Man, people don’t know and you don’t know unless you’re there [in WWE]. Not to do with nothing, but I want to take this time to actually give the writers a little bit of a break because they get crapped on the most. People don’t understand how it works there. It’s not the writers, and it’s not the agents, and it’s not the talent. It just works a very specific way. And unless you’re in it, you don’t know, so it’s very easy to sit at home and go, ‘why are they pushing this person? Why are they doing this?’ It’s harder than you think. Cut everybody some slack. It’s tricky.”
On if he has still been watching the product during his time away: “Yeah, I’ve watched the product once or twice. Yeah, I did [watch Survivor Series] and the bug is coming back to perform and whatever and wrestle again a little bit. I shouldn’t say I haven’t missed it at all, blah, blah, blah, but I love performing. I’m a performer. Who knows again, if you want to keep peeling back the layers, [who knows] what damage in my life [happened], what lack of attention I got in my life when I was three years old that caused me to be the way I am. But I’m a performer by nature.”
Check out the complete episode of Talk Is Jericho featuring the Sami Zayn interview at Player.fm.