Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn Reflect on Hell in a Cell Match With Shane McMahon

– Last month, Chris Jericho interviewed Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens on his Talk Is Jericho podcast. Below are some extended highlights from the show (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Kevin Owens on his beating and headbutt spot with Vince McMahon: “I really can’t remember being worried about it. It was pretty crazy because we talked earlier in the day and then I am in the ring cutting a promo, and then his music hits, it was Vince McMahon walking down the ramp. I’m thinking to myself, ‘holy crap.’ It’s a different animal then when you are in his office or seeing him in the back. “We shake hands, then we put the mics down; off mic he started talking so much s**t. If you could read his lips, I’m legitimately taken aback by it. He was using so many swear words just cussing me out. The only person I had ever head-butted as hard was William Regal in NXT. I’ll tell you this much, nobody can accuse me of taking it easy on the boss. Then the blood came, and the Superkick. Even the thing where he stands back up and looks at me and has blood after the headbutt and just the blood; he’s seething and tries coming at me, the whole thing was just so surreal.”

Kevin Owens on his feud with Shane McMahon: “It was a real blast. The whole time, from the moment he got involved with the AJ Styles angle. From the moment our [Jericho] angle ended at Payback, and then the rematch, then the three-way match that happened on SmackDown Live; I was working with AJ Styles all summer. I’m honest enough to say that I don’t believe we hit it out of the park with that angle, but then Shane McMahon got involved and added a different element to it… But every moment from that point on, Shane, and Vince McMahon getting involved, it’s as big as it gets. The following week I did something similar with Shane McMahon, which lead to our Hell in a Cell match, that big shocking turn there with Sami Zayn, that almost drove him insane.”

Zayn on how much work went into the match: “There’s three lives essentially on the line; there’s Shane McMahon, obviously, then there’s Kevin Owens, because if I don’t get him off in time, and then there’s me because if I ruin it, I’m dead. To me, this is an elite, Hollywood-level stunt and they’re telling me to just pull him off. I was like, “Hang on, hang on, when am I supposed to pull him off?’ They said that I would see Kevin Owens foot come off. I said, wait, I only have 1.8 seconds to go from invisible to grabbing him. He is lifeless; you don’t understand the margin of error for this. I had knots in my stomach all day. Not only that, but the one or two time that I tried pulling him off the table throughout the day, I slid right off.”

Zayn on how Kevin Owens’ life was on the line in the Hell in a Cell match: “Kevin Owens’ life is on the line. If you watched it in slow motion, Shane McMahon, at that velocity, maybe comes three feet away from Kevin Owens’ head, it was crazy how close it was. It’s a crazy stunt, but if this was in Hollywood, it would be rehearsed ad-nauseam; there would also be crash bags, but for us, it was like, ‘Well, when you see his foot…’ I’m like, ‘Lives are on the line.’ I was on the ground about to pull him off, and I looked at Shane thinking, I can’t believe he is about to do this. He is so high in the air. I just couldn’t believe it.”