Kevin Owens on Sami Zayn, His Longtime Friendship, and WWE Goals

Recent episode of CBS’ In This Corner podcast show had Kevin Owens as the guest discussing Sami Zayn’s role in the WWE, his longtime friendship with Zayn, and wanting to be the best regardless of his status as a face or heel.

On the topic of Sami Zayn in the WWE, Owens stated he understands why fans are upset Zayn hasn’t been able to achieve greater success on the main roster but knows its only a matter of time before Zayn’s role and status in the WWE expands to higher levels.

“I don’t think anybody deserves anything than what they already have because I believe everyone gets what they deserve. I’m not saying Sami doesn’t deserve a bigger role; I’m saying Sami will get a bigger role eventually. I think everyone deserves a bigger role, but I don’t think that is being taken away from them on purpose, and I believe everyone will get what they will get, which is what I believe. Some will tend to disagree with me on that, but that is okay, I’m not one to worry about popularity with my co-workers, I’m just who I am and that’s just how it is. Sami will get his on his time; you will eventually get to where you belong if you believe you deserve to be there.”

On the topic of his longtime friendship with Zayn, Owens considers Zayn to be like a brother to him due to how long they’ve known each other. He also stated Zayn is someone he has very good chemistry in the ring due to years worth of experience working together.

“Sometimes you have chemistry with people that is undeniable, and it just works, and sometimes you have matches with someone you think you are going to have good chemistry with, and it just doesn’t turn out that way. Sami and I have known each other for well over 15 years, so being here is the latter stage for us. We’ve been friends, we’ve been enemies, and have been at each other’s throats, and have been at each other’s side, we have done it all. We have been in every match possible. We’ve put each other through a lot, but also have been there for each other, so I think that translates to good chemistry at times.

“I would say that we are more like brothers than we are friends because we don’t choose our relatives, or who your brother and sister are; you don’t choose your family. You are born into your family, and in this case we weren’t born into each other’s family, but from the start of our careers when we started wrestling, on the Independent scene in the United States, or even back home in Canada, once we started to get our names out there and become more recognized, people just started booking us together all the time, which wasn’t our choice, they just paired up the ‘guy in the mask’ and Kevin Steen together and it just snowballed from there into where we are now.”

Later in the interview, Owens revealed his main goal in the WWE is to be the best performer on the roster regardless of his status as a face or heel. He believes crowd reactions are the key to making this happen and strives to get the loudest ones possible since it means crowds are invested in his work.

“People throw these words around so much: Heel, babyfaces, shoot, kayfabe, work; all this crap that they hear wrestlers say, but I can honestly, genuinely say that I am not trying to be a heel. I don’t know if that makes me a good performer or a bad performer, because I am sure many veterans of the industry will have their opinion, but I try to give the best performance that I can, and try to achieve the goal that is required of me, which often leads to people hating my guts or loving what I do.

“I always strive to receive the loudest reaction that I can; whether that is being booed out of the building or being cheered. One-hundred percent of what I do isn’t to achieve one time of reaction, I just want them to be loud and get an emotion out of them, which is what I strive for. People ask me how I am such a good heel, but I don’t know; I just try to be me and go and do what I need to do to get the job done on any show that I am on and achieve the work that is set up in front of me. If people enjoy my work then that is great, but I don’t set out a goal in getting a reaction, but just try to do what I can.”