Sami Zayn Doesn’t Think Fans Will Revolt If He Doesn’t Win Royal Rumble, If He Can Be the Face of WWE

Sami Zayn has a lot of fan momentum toward a possible Royal Rumble win, but he doesn’t think the fans will revolt if he doesn’t. Zayn recently spoke with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport ahead of tomorrow’s PPV and discussed why he doesn’t think this year will mirror the Daniel Bryan 2014 fiasco if he doesn’t win. He also talked about whether he could be the face of WWE and what that means as opposed to being champion. You can check out some highlights below:

On the idea of the fans being upset if he doesn’t win the Rumble: “I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t know that in the fans’ minds — maybe me and you are looking at it [in] a certain point or a certain way because we’re kind of diehards. But I think there’s a lot of casual fans who are just kind of along for the ride. And I don’t think the fans are where they were five, six years ago, where they would kind of revolt, and were like, ‘No! Daniel Bryan’s the guy! You’re trying to give us Batista, NO! We’ll force you, we’ll force you!’

“I don’t feel that level of I don’t know, borderline contempt from the audience towards the creative direction. I think because the story’s been so interesting, there’s a little bit of trust in that it’ll go where it goes, and it’ll still be fine. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are pulling for me. That’s great, it’s nice to be that guy. But I don’t think it’s at a place where like, Daniel Bryan was I believe in 2014, where it’s like, ‘Anybody but him is going to be a disaster.’ And actually it was, so they had to fix it.”

On the possibility of backlash against whoever does win if it’s not Zayn: “If it’s done right, you can do almost anything. It has to be done well and has to be done just right. If it’s not done right, could there be some kind of backlash to, ‘Man, the story made the most sense, he was the guy the fans liked, everything was right there but they went this way.” And if they don’t do it right there is the possibility of contempt towards whoever that person is. Whether it’s Cody, whether it’s anybody, it could be anybody. If it’s not done right, it could kind of hurt that person. But you know, we work with a lot of people who know how to do things right. So if I’m not the guy — and I genuinely as of this exact conversation, one day before the Royal Rumble, I have no idea what the plan is — I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel that way.

“I try to listen to the fans, I try not to pick too much stock in the online kind of thing. But I’m sure there’s a good percentage like — again, if you follow nothing else but the storyline, it’s a layup that I would be in that conversation. What actually ends up happening is again, it’s not my control.”

On if he could be the face of the company as a champion: “If I’m being honest, like I don’t feel like — I could win the world title, I could carry it for a while. I could go and do talk shows, I could do all that stuff. I don’t know if I’m that guy that you could necessarily hitch your wagon to for the next 5, 10 years and like, face of the company for the next 5, 10 years. Just if nothing else, because I’m somewhat realistic about my physical — you know, I’m not as big as say Roman or Cena or Brock or whoever. And that’s typically the guy who is the head of that scene, because they want a certain projection I think for the long haul.

“Could I win the world title? I think, especially because of the way the story is done — as I said a moment ago, if you do anything right, fans will buy it and they’ll get into it. So I think at this point, the way things are built — and I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen — if it was me and Roman at WrestleMania and I beat Roman, and we did it right, the way we’ve been doing it right the last nine months, no one’s gonna go “Bogus, I’m out, I can’t take that.’ Because we’ve done it right. And I think I could be a guy who could carry that title six months, go on Jimmy Fallon, make a couple of jokes, have him do his like fake laugh that he does and all that good stuff. And sure, I could do that. probably do that in my sleep to be honest. But like, it’s just I understand the company’s projection of what they see as the like face of the company. Not being the champion, the champion in the face are almost two different things. And I feel like I could be the champion, no problem. As far as being the guy that they’re like, ‘Number one, he’s our guy, he’s the poster boy, he’s the ultimate representation of what our company is?’ I know physically I don’t fit that mold.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit BT Sport with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.