Sami Zayn Reflects On Online Wrestling Criticism, Prefers To Rely On Live Crowd Reactions

Sami Zayn has weighed in on online wrestling criticism and why, while it’s not nothing, he doesn’t believe it always reflects real-world sentiment. Online fans are a source of constant discussion in wrestling and often trend toward being critical of wrestling product, regardless of company. WWE was the target of heavy criticism leading into WrestleMania, and while the sentiment was measurable in real-world terms, much of the conversation — as with anything — was driven in part by social media discussion.

Zayn was asked about the matter in his recent interview on HUGE POP! With Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas. Zayn spoke about how the internet has given everyone a voice and how, while there’s value in that, he feels like the in-arena crowd reactions are a more accurate barometer. You can see the highlights below:

On Online Wrestling Criticism:

“That’s a tricky one, right? Because I think — well, there’s a lot to say on this subject. So I think once upon a time, let’s just go back to the Attitude Era as an example. I don’t necessarily know that fans weren’t watching at home going, ‘She gave birth to a hand? Like, what sense does that make?’ Or like, ‘Did he just chop that guy’s pee-pee off?’ Or whatever like, insane stuff that we did back then. They might have had some thoughts about all this stuff, but they didn’t really have a place to articulate it, or voice it, or blast it across a platform that everybody is sharing, including us. The wrestlers, the people writing the show, the fans.”

“The — I don’t want to be insulting here, but the stupid fans and the smart fans, and the ones that barely know the wrestling business, and the ones that have been watching their whole life. The ones that are super casual or super analytical; they’re all sharing the same space. So it almost makes it seem like these are all, I don’t want to, you know, equal or valid opinions. And you’re hearing them at the same volume. But the thing is like, it’s kind of just a reflection of the world we’re living in, and the technology that we have these days with social media.”

On Relying More On Live Crowd Reactions:

“For me, a lot of that stuff I don’t buy into. To me, the most accurate barometer always is the live crowd. Because if you just go off what the internet was saying, you would think that CM Punk is the worst wrestler we have. Jey Uso was widely hated. Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, myself, Cody. But then — and I read some of this stuff online, and then I go to the building and these are the people getting the biggest pops on the show. So it’s not indicative.

“And I think once upon a time, maybe the online opinion was somewhat reflective what you were seeing on television. But I think over the last few years — and maybe this is like bot farms and the fact that a lot of Twitter users or whatever are actually just bots, right? That’s a fact. That’s not me going down the conspiracy Sami rabbit hole here. It’s a fact that something like, I don’t know what it is, 70% of users are not even real.”

On the Difference Between Online and In-Person Reactions:

“So I just don’t know. It seems like in recent years, there’s been a chasm between the online opinion, more often than not, than the live house. And what you get out of the live house are people who are not just complaining about things. These are people that like the product enough to shell out their hard-earned money to spend their night consuming this. This thing that obviously, if you’re showing up at the show it’s because you like this, right? So it’s not — you’re not just like an embittered person who’s like, ‘This is terrible!’ or whatever. So I think the people that actually show up, that like this enough to show up, feel a certain way. And I don’t think the online — whatever. Backlash, opinion, even when it seems like it’s very popular online opinion, I don’t think it’s indicative of like the real fans or whatever you want to say.

“But it’s weird. It’s just a weird world we’re living in. And this is not exclusive to our business. Our business is like chronically online and has a huge online presence. So maybe we feel it more… I know we’re in our wrestling bubble. We think it’s like wrestling. It’s not. It’s a world thing. So that’s why, I don’t know how to really tackle the subject. A long-winded answer to just say online stuff, I think you got to take it with a grain of salt. It’s not nothing, but I find in recent years, it’s not indicative whatsoever of the real sentiment by the real fans that pay money and show up at the door.”

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