Sami Zayn Prefers The Brand Split to Joined Rosters, Reveals Which Survivor Series Matches He’s Looking Forward To

– Speaking with Mike Jones’ DC 101 show, Sami Zayn weighed in on the brand split and which matches at Survivor Series he’s looking forward to. You can see the highlights from the discussion and the full podcast below:

On how the locker room is feeling heading into Survivor Series: “Yeah, I think NXT being added to the mix really changes the dynamic a little bit. I know just for Shinsuke, I mean he can speak on it more than me. But I know his match, for me personally, not just being in his corner but just as a fan it’s probably the match I’m most excited about because those are three guys with a lot of history there between Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, and Roderick Strong. Three respective champions on each of their brands. That’s gonna be, I think, a great match. And I know Shinsuke mentioned he is excited about that. So that, you know, it’s a lot of that type of stuff and yeah definitely an exciting time of year.”

On which other matches he’s excited for: “I think they really all are exciting in their own way. It’s just because these are matches you have really never seen, which is always for me — again, just taking my performer hat off and just looking at it as a fan, it’s always fun when you can see stuff that you can’t normally see. And between the RAW and SmackDown brands, there’s been a lot of movement over the last year or two, a lot of people bouncing back and forth. Especially for most of this year with the wild card rule, so you saw a lot of guys mix it up with each other. But again as I said, now that you add NXT you’re seeing matches you’ve never seen before, and that you might never see again. That match with Becky, Bailey, and Shayna is just one example, but you got the Team SmackDown, Team NXT, Team RAW. It’s just a cast of characters that you might never see against each other in the ring again. So I dunno, I think the whole event is very, very intriguing.”

On if he prefers the brand split or a joined roster: “Well me personally, and I don’t know how Shinsuke feels about it, but me personally, I prefer the distinction. I prefer SmackDown staying on Smackdown and Raw staying on Raw. I think it’s a good way, I think people get more opportunities this way to really shine. I’m for the interweaving of the brands maybe once or twice a year the way we are doing now with Survivor Series. It makes it very interesting if you only see it here and there. So, you see how exciting it is now at Survivor Series, and now with NXT being added. Just because it’s something you don’t see every week. So I think the same thing could be said for the brand split in general, wherein Smackdown stays Smackdown and Raw stays Raw, and then once or twice a year people jump that line, jump the fence, it’s pretty exciting.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit It’s Mike Jones with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

Listen to “It's Mike Jones with WWE's Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn” on Spreaker.