411’s WWE Broken Skull Sessions Report: Sami Zayn on His Rivalry with Kevin Owens, RAW Debut Against Cena, More

411’s WWE Broken Skull Sessions Report: Sami Zayn

-Poor Sami finally gets a sit down interview with Austin and it drops the day Vince McMahon sets the wrestling world on fire by announcing his retirement.  Oh, and Brock Lesnar walked out and HHH is back as Head of Talent Relations.  Nobody is going to care this report, but we carry on.  Let’s get to it! 

-Run Time: 1:36:29

-Sami jokes that has finally made it to some version of this show as nearly everyone has been interviewed by Austin at this point.  Austin tells him he is a fan of his work and has followed him for years.  He brings up Sami’s match at Mania with The Jackass crew and while a young, Steve Austin wouldn’t have enjoyed it as he was all about being serious, this older version of Stone Cold thought it was great.  He was impressed with Sami being a ruthless heel, but showing his comedic timing in the match.  So Austin told WWE he wanted Sami on the show.  

-They briefly discuss how Sami made the drive here in a Ford Mustang and Sami says that isn’t the car people would picture him in, but he started to get a thing for convertibles.  His regular car is a 2004 Nissan Ultima and Austin loves it.  He tells Sami he has a 2003 Ford Focus in California that is his driving car.  Sami is stunned as he thought for sure nobody had an older car than him.  

-They talk life on the road and how Sami likes to see the sights of the various cities.  Austin used to do that until the grind of the business got to him.  Sami says his first trip to Europe on the independents blew him away and he didn’t know if he would get back, so he used the week before the show to see as much as he could.  He namedrops his friend, Super Dragon, as the one he traveled with him.  Sami feels it is his obligation to take advantage of the travel and see everything he can.  Austin agrees and mentions life is short and live it to the fullest.  

-Austin wants to start with WrestleMania 38 and the match with Johnny Knoxville.  Austin again says he loved the match and it was a breath of fresh air.  Sami admits he never felt he would be in a match like that, but he is very proud of that match.  He is defensive of the match and if you didn’t like that match, then you are stupid to the business.  He doesn’t know how people who are in the business didn’t get the match.  Austin thinks Mania 38 was one of the greatest of All Time and just for sheer enjoyment Sami’s match was the most entertaining.  

-Sami has so much to say and doesn’t want to sound protective, but it was hard to have that kind of match.  He wears the fact that he got the crowd standing for the last 7 minutes while wrestling a 51 year old non-wrestler as a badge of honor.  To him it wasn’t a comedy match, it was a match.  If he did an anatomy of the match it checks every box and that is why he is so proud of it.  

-Austin throws to the video and Sami is all about breaking this down.  Can I get a full commentary with these two?  Austin laughs that Sami doesn’t have to explain to him as he gets what is going on as Sami talks about giving Knoxville some shine.  Sami wanted to make a point that Johnny is a celebrity, but one that will bump.  The Party Boy Spot and Austin and Sami can’t stop laughing.  Next the Wee Man moment and the crowd just loses it.  Again, I have a friend that grew up a wrestling fan and he stopped watching 15 years ago, but he got Peacock just to watch this match and called it the best match he has ever seen.  So it did something right.  Sami tells us he wasn’t wearing a cup and the bowling bowl spot could have gone wrong.  Sami is just so full of pride talking about this match as he says it has a little bit of everything.  Austin is impressed with how well the Jackass Crew held their composure.  Sami gives Knoxville credit as well for hitting each beat and for covering the rope breaking on the mouse trap.  He says that Johnny even asked earlier in the day for someone to show him what to do if the mouse trap didn’t work.  Cool story! 

-Austin says there was comedic aspects, but Sami showed his vicious heel side.  Sami says he realized since High School he has had to carry himself to earn respect.  He knows this match isn’t what to do to get a run on top with Roman or Brock, but he would rather do this match as it will be remembered for years and there is nothing like it.  Sami says they got a standing ovation when they went back through Gorilla.  He knew he crushed it when he got props from people he respected and the one person he thought of was Bret Hart as he wondered what he thought of the match.  He was worried Bret looked down on the match and hasn’t talked to him about it yet.  

-Austin picks up on the Bret comment and thinks Sami and Bret are similar in the way they set up matches.  He says Bret’s approach was the canvas is a place to make art.  Sami says the Mania match was a work of art on a canvas and it was a bigger canvas than normal as he had more room to do things out of the box.  Sami says he knows he will never had a better match at Mania and everything is fine from here on out.  He says Kevin Owens had the same reaction to his match with Austin.  Sami says he may have better technical matches or bigger matches for World Titles, but nothing tops this match for him.  

-Montreal: Austin asks Sami about watching wrestling and he says one of his earliest memories is Hulk Hogan bleeding and posing after a match.  His father watched wrestling and was an amateur wrestler.  Sami says he loved the larger than life characters like Hogan and Warrior.  This leads to a discussion where Austin calls Hogan a realy good worker and Sami says Hogan was underrated.  THANK YOU!  Sami says Hogan has a great babyface sale.  A few years later as he started to appreciate the technical wrestlers, Bret became a hero at age 8-9.  The in ring work started getting him going the more he watched and learned.  

-In the 9th grade he had to move schools due to zoning changes and lost contact with a friend.  Three years later the friend contacts him about if he still was a wrestling fan.  They agreed to sign up to what they thought was a school, but it was someone’s backyard where they learned to bump on a mattress and then just the grass.  He learned that he was a natural as they started to bump and he picked things up quickly.  He was the only one that stuck it out for 5 months and the trainer told Sami he thinks he is ready.  He jokes his 6 month of training on grass was sufficient for Montreal Indy scene.  He came up with the name Stevie McFly and Austin makes the Back to the Future joke.  Sami said he just needed one match to say he was a wrestler so he could ask to work other places.  He got booked in a church with 3 people in the crowd and the guy just said sure.  

-Sami tells the story of his trainer meeting his mom, who asked if her son had a future and the trainer assured her he did.  Sami didn’t buy it and felt WWE was just a pipedream.  He knew the road map was work Indys in Montreal then go to Indys in the US then Mexico, Japan, ECW, WCW, and then WWE.  

-El Generico: The story is that it was to be a one night thing as the plan wasn’t to work under a hood.  Austin asks if the hood did anything and Sami says he thinks everyone should work under the hood.  He says El Generico worked as a comic book character and had more room for experimentation.  Austin wonders if working under a hood for 11 years helped Sami with his facial reactions when he was out of the mask.  Sami says that he had to get good as the skill set in that box and it happened with the art of body language and then facial expressions.  

-Sami talks about taking every booking he could and in 2010 he had a girlfriend.  It was the only girlfriend he has ever had and when they broke up he made an effort to work everywhere and anywhere. 

-They flash a picture of Kevin Owens and El Generic in ROH and they joke that if you look at that neither guy is never getting into the WWE.  Sami says KO saw WWE as a more realistic goal than Sami did.  He was more in the moment and wasn’t stuck on “this is the only way to get to WWE.”  Sami was more into International stuff than KO, but they both had the goal of WWE.  They just clicked over their love for wrestling.  

-Austin drops the names of Danielson, Rollins, and Cesaro and how that group took over the wrestling business.  Sami says it is both crazy and perfect they took over the scene.  He doesn’t know if Danielson gets there without working Christopher Daniels and company.  They all fed off each other much like Austin had to keep up and feed off Brian Pillman when they were paired together.  

-The story of how Sami ended up in WWE.  He says it was a crazy story and he decided in 2011 he was going to make a real run at getting to WWE.  The first time WWE was mentioned to him was 2006 when he got a call from Jamie Noble.  He asked Generico for a DVD and he would pass it along.  Sami thought it was for an Indy in Texas and it dawned on him it was for WWE.  Jamie told him WWE was going to put together a Cruiserweight show and he felt Sami was perfect though he told him not to get his hopes up.  Nothing happened, but the rumor of the CW Show continued for years.  His ROH contract was up in 2011 and he told Delirious he didn’t to sign a contract so he could make a run at WWE, but still wants to work ROH shows.  Canyon Ceman gets hired at WWE and he watched an ROH show and Generico stuck out to him.  He offered Sami a try-out and it was a no brainer as he felt he could make it now.

-Training Camp: Sami says the only other thing he did for WWE was doing extra work in Toronto and Ottawa. He remembers on the 6 hour drive to Toronto he pulled over as he questioned what he was doing as he didn’t belong with people like Taker. He pulled over and started giving himself a pep talk about how he worked with Paul London and Jushin Liger and they both thought he was great. That was his first taste of the WWE world and then two years later at the try-out camp he had all the confidence in the world. He knew he would show up everyone and knew even if they only took two people, he would make it. He did make it though they took 12 people from the camp.

-They talk Indys and Sami notes you felt like you were on an island and WWE was seen as the big time. “What’s Jim Ross going to think, as he has seen everything ever?” He was validated at the try-out when everyone said he was a unanimous yes. That was good enough even if nothing else came from it.

-Austin asks about early mentors and Sami puts over Regal, who put in a good word for him and Joey Mercury. He was surprised how much HHH was into his work as he had this notion that HHH had a different type of superstar he would hire. He didn’t know HHH and you hear things that he doesn’t like Indy guys. That sure changed when he got NXT off the ground!

-Sami talks about how weird it was working without the mask and having a name similar to his real name (Rami). He tried to root his selling in reality as a babyface in NXT and now that he is a heel he is back to over exaggerating like he did when he was under the hood.

-NXT: Sami says when he arrived it was stifling and couldn’t become a thing. Hunter had a different vision than they people in charge when Sami arrived. He admits to butting heads with Bill Demott and Terry Taylor. He and Taylor did not get along at first, but now he considers Terry his wrestling dad. Everything was rigid with no experimentation and he tells the story of a 6 man tag with The Wyatt Family. He threw in a near fall and Taylor lost it on him. He gives a lot of credit to Cesaro who came down to NXT. Since he was a main roster guy they were allowed to get away with more. He credits their 2 out of 3 falls match for kicking open the door what NXT became. Austin and Sami both agree that for a time NXT was putting on better shows than the main roster and it just came across as more organic.

-Sami brings up running in Bayley at The PC as she is training to come back from her injury. They shared war stories and how they helped created NXT while Gargano/Ciampa etc came into something was built. He and Bayley and others helped create something like ECW before them and ROH, PWG.

-To the footage of Sami in promo class in March of 2013. Austin jokes he is a good looking kid and Sami laughs. Sam says it is word to watch this now. Austin puts over the way Sami has with words and compares his command of the English language to George Carlin. Sami says that was the period where he started to find his voice. Sami said he could speak, but it wasn’t a promo yet. He notes he was very lucky to sit under Dusty’s learning tree. He had to learn to “try not to cut promos.” Sami thinks he is a better heel promo than a face, though he would like to see how it goes if he ever goes back to the other side.

-Sami says there was a promo he did in NXT before the Title Match with Neville. He went to his first acting class and used what he learned to get into a good head space. We see the promo as he tells Neville it’s not about respect between them and he slaps Neville across the face. It just so happens Taker was there and saw the promo. He pulled both aside and gave them praise for their promo and the match they had that night. Taker was afraid they would just do high spots, but told a great story. Great story as Kevin Owens was just with NXT but hadn’t debuted and he was backstage when Taker popped for the promo. Apparently Taker marked out over the slap to the face and popped his head in Gorilla and yelled “They just sold some fucking tickets.” Gorilla was so busy they didn’t heart Taker and no sold what he said which caused Taker do to a double take. He made sure to repeat it even louder and everyone popped for Taker that time. Fun stuff!

-They discuss idea of being Main Event and just being on the card. Austin feels no matter where you are on the card you can sell tickets. Sami agrees and had a moment of clarity where he stopped worrying why other people were in spots he wasn’t. It was after the pandemic when he returned around the same time as Roman. He saw Roman and realize, yes, that’s why that guy is in the Main Event. He knew he was going to take whatever he was give, have fun and make the best of it. That has made him happier with everything happening.

-To the video of Neville/Zayn for the NXT Championship at R Evolution. Austin says Sami never seems blow up and Sami says he is always blown up and they will talk about that later. Is that like a Hulk in Avengers things where he is always angry? Sami gets the win to a massive pop and then confetti and everyone congratulating Sami. Including KO who then turns on him and powerbombs the piss out of him off the ring apron. NXT MEMORIES!

-Sami mentions Dusty once told him he reminded him on a young Robin Williams and Austin says he can see that. Sami went back to watch young Robin and realized he was obviously nowhere close as Williams was on another level.

-KO vs. Sami: They were amazed the program they had done in basements in front of 30 people was going to be done on WWE backed television. They had those moment where they ask each other if they can believe where they are and had another one of those moments at Mania with KO vs Austin and him vs. Knoxville.

-Main Roster: Sami answers John Cena’s US Title Open Challenge on RAW complete with Bret Hart bringing him out in Montreal. Austin throws out that Bret was huge to his career and Sami says Bret is Austin’s KO. They may not have wrestled coming up together, but you can’t tell the story of Austin without Bret and can’t tell the story of Sami without KO. Austin agrees. We see Sami make his entrance and he knows what’s coming. Sami throws his arms up and pops his shoulder out of place and then right back in place. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew something was wrong. Austin asks about the Vick’s Vapor Rub and Sami says he does it to open his nostrils so he won’t be blown up but he is always blown up. He credits Cena for making him that night and for letting him to kick out of moves he didn’t need to. Cena hits the Springboard Stunner and AA for the win. Sami thinks Cena is an underrated sell as he has great facials. Sami mentions Cena was pumped for the match as he knew what kind of crowd it would be. He also isn’t sure if this is a debut as even without the injury this may have been a one shot deal and back to NXT. He jokes he has 3-4 debuts before he finally stuck around, but he feels fine calling this his debut.

-Sami notes his first live event he saw was Survivor Series 97 in the building he made his WWE debut with Bret introducing him. I love stories like that!

-Surgery came after the match and Sami was out 6-7 months. That was the first injury that took him away from the ring. He thinks everyone should be injured and be taken out of the bubble for 6-8 months. Austin says he was out he watched to see what others were doing and Sami notes he was worried about what not to do. His question while watching at home was “why do we do that? Why does everyone do that?”

-Takeover Dallas: Austin says he was there and he was blown away by Sami/Nakamura. Austin feels it is one of the best matches he has ever seen. No kidding! He is proud of the little secrets in the match such as there was only one near fall on his end by design. He didn’t want to have matches that just relied on near fall after near fall. They agree that this match showcased Nakamura but without steamrolling Sami and because of that it meant more than what a SQUASH would have.

-Battleground: KO vs Sami: Sami mentions that when the match was over, he and KO felt it was their best match against each other. To the video and yes, it’s another great match between the two. They had the crowd rocking. Sami says Kevin is a great opponent because he will beat you up, but then will let you beat him up. Sami gets the win and he mentions KO was higher on the card than him, so it was a big win for him.

-Another story from NXT as Sami brings up the famous match was Cesaro and how the fans were chanting “Match of The Year” when it ended. Sami felt he would get heat from that due to his experience with Bill Demott as that is an Indy chant. Insetad HHH gave them a standing ovation and because he was clapping, Bill was as well. HHH told them they boys will tell them it was great because of the moves, but the match was great because of the story they told and how they were each trying to outsell the other. Sami didn’t know what he meant at the time, but does now.

-Austin asks Sami about a favorite match and Sami says he has a top 5-10, but can’t pick one. Austin jokes he has only had two of them and one was Bret. Sami asks the other and Austin jokes a Steamboat match at The Forum with no cameras. Nice! He then says it was probably Rock at Mania X-7.

-We jump to 2017 and Sami felt he was spinning his wheels and went to Vince. Seth, Kevin, and Dean had all been World Champion and they are his peers. Vince told him he hadn’t turned heel yet which caught Sami off guard. Everyone pushed against it, but Vince wanted to see him run as a heel. Sami knew he could do the matches, but he started to get more of a character.

-He knows the moment they saw him in a different light and he wasn’t even working a match. He was a guest ref in a KO/Seth match and what he did popped Vince and Michael Hayes. That is where they turned him into a manager for Nakamura. That is where he started to get more trust from the office and got the chance to drive stories more.

-To the video as we get footage from Sami Zayn’s still unreleased documentary. Sami says it was going to get a full release but there was a change in the company and it got shelved. He says they had so much great footage and he hopes they release it one day. Great stuff and yes, release the footage. We need to start a Twitter campaign and as I hear those work. THUNDERDOME ERA! Sami calls it some of his favorite stuff he has ever done and he isn’t sure what would have happened if they had a live house. He enjoyed the Thunderdome stuff.

-Logan Paul: Sami formulated the reasoning for his character to be associated with Logan and it was quite easy. Logan has a massive social media presence and Sami’s character wanted to get his documentary out to the masses.

-The Bloodline: To the footage of Sami stopping Paul from answering any questions from Kayla. Sami says Paul is great and when he think what he is doing if great, he sees what Paul does and realizes he isn’t as good. Austin loved the promo and notes, “you didn’t say shit, and it meant so much.”

-Paul Heyman: Sami likes talking to Paul about things outside wrestling. He tells Paul he is a dinosaur as he worked for Vince Sr. He has done so much and they are lucky enough to have him at their disposal.

-Another story as he was talking with Paul and wanted to do a program with Brock and Roman. Paul felt Sami thought he didn’t like him, but Sami just knew Paul didn’t seem him as a top guy. Sami notes he works in the Main Event with Drew on house shows that Roman doesn’t work. He knows he has no self doubt he could work in the Main Event.

-Goals: He would like to win the WWE Title just once. His favorite Title was the IC Title and he got that. He isn’t all about Championships, but winning the WWE Title once is a goal. He wants to keep working until the wheels fall off and then be a Bobby Heenan or Paul Heyman.

-Austin puts over how smooth and efficient Sami is in the ring and compares him to Bobby Eaton. He feels Sami adds tremendous value to the company. Sami tries to have a healthy balance of ego and keeping it in check. Sami mentions having a legacy like Shawn, Angle, Eddie and Steve. Austin jokes he had 3 moves and Sami mentions he had more than that when he would go 30 with Steamboat. Austin takes a drink to that.

-Sami talks future opponents and he would like to do something with Randy and Roman. He thinks he and Brock have chemistry. Darn right they do! Sami would love a program that is more than just Brock eating him up in 3 minutes. Well, I mean don’t we all. Sami’s plan is just take each match in context as each gut he works is different. There are credible ways for a match with Brock to work, but obviously Brock would have to sign off on it.

-One final story and Austin mentions he was six months into the business. He was jacked and working in Tennessee and saw how small Bill Dundee was working, so Austin felt Bill would be bumping for him and the match went the other way. Sami says Lashley told him that he is a big guy but always worked Fit Finlay who made sure he worked big. Sami tries to work small as a face and as a heel, because people want to see his ass get whipped. He thinks working small could be an issue if he got pushed to matched with Brock/Roman. It just shows him even after 20 years he is still learning in the business.

-Austin wraps things up and thanks Sami for coming. They mention this is their first real chance to talk and Sami brings up he saw Austin pacing before his match at Mania and realized that wasn’t a good time to mess with Austin as he was in some kind of zone. A handshake and we are out!

-Quite enjoyable as Sami has the gift of gab. He had no issues picking up on where Austin was leading and even spinning off to stories that he wanted to tell or stories that related. A fun watch as this show tends to be. Thanks for reading!