Sami Zayn Explains How He Adapted To His Character Getting Booed After US Title Win

Sami Zayn turned heel after his US Title win in response to the crowd reactions to him, and he recently discussed how he approached that. Zayn started getting heavily booed by the crowd after he won the United States Championship from Carmelo Hayes in March. Zayn had been hinting toward a more heelish persona at the time already, but the title win kicked things into high gear.

Zayn was asked about the crowd reactions shifting toward him during in his appearance on HUGE POP! With Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas. Zayn said that he felt the turning point after he beat Hayes, which he fully understood. He noted though that his job as a performer was to approach the character’s perspective. He talked about how he feels he has to block out what’s going on outside in regard to outside matters such as online reaction and focus on where his character is and the storyline is. You can see the highlights below:

On How He Started Getting Boos:

“Well in a way there is some validity to the character, which is why I’m trying to incorporate it into the story arc. Because if you — so, I’ll give you an example, but the big turning point is when I won the United States Championship, okay? Because Carmelo [Hayes] is doing a phenomenal job with [it], and he’s an up-and-comer, and people want to see [him]. I was in that position 10 years ago where, ‘Come on. Give the guy a chance!’ and whatever. And then a couple weeks before WrestleMania — it’s a raw deal, okay? No question about it.

“But when I win the title that night, nobody’s booing. If you look at the crowd shots, if you look at the night, they cheer. But then the next week I show up, and that was the first night it was like unanimous, overwhelming boos. And I think that’s a response to kind of all of it.”

On How He Approaches That As a Character:

“But if you look at what I actually — as a character now — what the character actually did, he saw he was getting edged out of WrestleMania. Where’s an open challenge, he answers it, he wins. From a character perspective — and again, if I’m on TV, I’m playing a character. And I put a lot of thought into that character and not trying to muddy what’s going on online with what’s going on week to week to week. So, as far as the person on television is concerned, he was getting cheered, he showed up, saw an opportunity, took it, won. And you know, what did he really do wrong? He doesn’t know.

“And of course, some of that is playing like — look, this stuff has kind of been built to, if you even watch weeks prior to that where I’m lashing out backstage and I’m attacking Cody and I’m attacking Jacob, and I’m off the rails a little bit. Like, some of this is by design, obviously. We’re shifting a little bit, right? And I think you have to. But all of this to say, I try to focus on — it’s like being an actor, right? If you’re shooting a scene, you have to know, ‘Well, what time of day is it? Where is this in the story arc?’ You just have to be mindful of all these variables and not remember, ‘Oh, I’m actually this person and this is where we’re going, and this is what they’re saying online.’ You gotta compartmentalize a little bit, you know what I mean? I’m not sure if that’s making sense, but I’m just saying if you actually watch the television show and nothing else.”

On Blocking Out Outside Reactions When He’s Approaching the Character:

“I find this really funny sometimes. If you go back and watch stuff, context kind of gets thrown out the window and you’re just watching it for what it is. You’re not like, ‘Oh, you know what? At this time, there was a big online–‘ Because that’s forgotten, you move on from that so fast. So if you go back and watch stuff from five years ago, a lot of times you’re not remembering the other variables, you’re just watching in a vacuum. You’re watching it for what it is. And you know, I think that’s what you need to focus on as a performer is just where you’re at right now. And where you were last week and that’s about it. Or in the preceding weeks.”

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