WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn talks about life as a pro wrestler and the influences that contributed to his success in the ring.
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00:00I don't think it's really changed me at all, to be honest with you.
00:14Being NXT champion, I don't think is, it's something I definitely wanted, and it's something
00:18I worked hard to, you know, attain, but I'm pretty much the same person with the championship
00:24or without.
00:25You know, it's just, to me, it's a big feather in my cap that it was something I set out
00:29to do, and I was able to do it, but it doesn't really change who I am or how I act, you know.
00:39My finishing move is called the Halluva Kick.
00:42It's basically, I park myself in one corner of the ring, and I have an opponent prone
00:47on the opposite corner, and when I see that my time is right, I charge from across the
00:52ring and kick him in the face, yep.
01:00I mean, you have to, you have to wrestle Steve Austin, right, like Stone Cold Steve Austin
01:04was the man, and I actually hated him at the time because I was such a Bret Hart fan.
01:09I was such a little, like, meh, like, it just really got to me, and he had such a personal
01:15rivalry with Bret that it took me years to forgive him.
01:19I'm pathetic.
01:20I acknowledge this.
01:22It took me years to forgive him, like, probably five years.
01:25Like, I only started to appreciate him in maybe 2001, five years after he was feuding
01:31with Bret Hart.
01:32That's what a, like, fanboy I was, you know.
01:34So, yeah, yeah, he was just awesome.
01:40Shawn Michaels before his injury, I think one of the best wrestlers of all time.
01:45I think it's pretty unanimous there, and The Rock would be cool just because he's, you
01:50know, The Rock, and he was super over, and people loved him, and, yeah, he's really popular.
01:56People really liked him.
01:57It'd be fun to be in the ring just with that kind of atmosphere and electricity surrounding
02:01the match.
02:02I mean, even if they had no idea who I was, you know, if I'm kicking The Rock, they're
02:06going to care, you know.
02:14Well, NXT Revolution was a very big night for me, and part of the reason it was so big
02:20for me was because Kevin Owens, who was a long-time friend of mine, long-time friend,
02:24foe, just everything you can possibly be with someone, we've had that relationship for the
02:29last 12 years.
02:32Our careers have been linked like this, yes, like, you couldn't say my name without his,
02:37and vice versa.
02:38So, it was such a big night for me because not only was I, you know, had this big match
02:42with my career on the line, and the championship on the line, and everything against Adrian
02:46Neville, who's also one of my best friends and best opponents.
02:49But it was the night that NXT, you know, he was finally, Kevin Owens was finally debuting
02:53in NXT.
02:54So, it was, I felt like it was my debut in a weird way too, like, I watched his match
02:58from the back, and like, I was welling up with tears, I was so proud, you know.
03:03And so, I maybe should have seen it coming, but I kind of, I just didn't.
03:09And it hurt, obviously.
03:10It caused some damage, and I was off TV for a few weeks, but, you know, here we are.
03:16The live special is just around the corner, February 11th, so.
03:26If it were up to Sami, I'd, you know, yeah, sure, whatever.
03:29Yeah, yeah.
03:30Well, I would defend this first, and maybe when I lost it.
03:33If I lost it, I'd go.
03:34I don't know.
03:36If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere between six months and a year.
03:40I don't know.
03:43To me, it's an inevitability that I'll end up there.
03:46It's just a matter of when.
03:47So instead of stressing about, you know, when, when, when, and not enjoying the ride, I mean,
03:51like, I'm the NXT champion now.
03:53That's a pretty big deal.
03:54And so, I want to enjoy that, you know what I mean?
03:56While I'm here, and while I have it, and while NXT is growing as a brand, seemingly by the
04:01day, it's just getting bigger and bigger, and getting more and more of a cult following
04:05within the WWE universe.
04:07Like, within such a wide global fan base, there's this undercurrent of people going
04:12like, wait, are you watching this?
04:14You know, NXT here?
04:15Because no one's really talking about it, but it's getting really good.
04:18So it's sort of bubbling underneath the surface, and, you know, that's something I'm kind of
04:23comfortable with, just based on my career, my background on the independents, it's sort
04:27of like, you know, underground, and that speaks to me as a person, that sort of underground
04:32following.
04:33So it's something I'm happy to be a part of, and I'll be sad when that chapter of my career
04:39is done, but I'll be happy, because the new chapter, you know, on Raw and SmackDown, and
04:44all these major pay-per-views will have begun, so it's win-win for me.
04:52It can't just be a dream, it has to be a goal, because dreams are just dreams, unless you
04:58put the work in, and that sacrifice that I'm talking about, that's part of putting the
05:02work in.
05:03So, you know the difference between a dream and a goal, and if it's something you really
05:08want, make it your goal.
05:10Oh my God, that's a tough one.
05:18What I'll do, because it's so subjective and so personal, is I'll just tell you five people
05:23that influenced me, okay?
05:26When I was a very, like, this is kind of why I'm a wrestler.
05:30These five people, I've narrowed it down.
05:33From a very young age, it was Hulk Hogan.
05:35That's kind of what introduced me to wrestling.
05:37I think a lot of people's introduction to wrestling, people from my age group, was Hulk
05:40Hogan, so that, you know, Hogan and the spectacle that he kind of embodied, and the just grand,
05:49you know, spectacle and theatrics of Hulk Hogan, I think first drew me to wrestling,
05:54and that's where I knew I'm in love with this, and I probably want to do this, you know?
05:59But when you're five, you don't really realize, like, this will be my career.
06:01You don't know, you don't know anything, but you know you like it, so I knew I liked it.
06:06And then as I got a little bit older, Bret Hart became, like, my hero, totally my hero.
06:11And you know, right up until my sort of teenage years, Mankind became, Mick Foley became a
06:19huge influence on me, because he was so unorthodox, and you know, he was so willing to, like,
06:26his style was so sacrificial, right?
06:29Like he would really give every fiber of his being, yeah, you could tell that there was
06:35that passion that drove him, and that, like, spoke to me.
06:40And then I guess right before I started getting trained, what really took over for me was
06:43the Hardy Boys, because again, these were guys that were, you know, not enormous, very
06:48unorthodox looking, that seemed like a realistic goal, and they were guys that, like, wrestled
06:54in their backyard, just like me and my friends, and like, they had this lofty goal, and then
06:58all of a sudden they showed up, and you know, doing all these acrobatic things that, like,
07:02you know, they just really, really, it resonated with me.
07:05And I think those are the five biggest influences I had.
07:08I don't think they're necessarily the five best wrestlers of all time, although you could
07:11make a case that, you know, a few of them definitely are, but, you know, there's guys
07:16like Shawn Michaels or Eddie Guerrero or Steve Austin that I think belong on that, like,
07:21best wrestlers of all time list, but these are just the five people that probably influenced
07:24me most into getting to where I am right now.
07:28This is WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn, and you're watching GNTV.