Sami Zayn on Shift In Crowd Response To Him After He Defeated Carmelo Hayes for WWE United States Title, Gingerbread Man’s Involvement in His Feud with Trick Williams, & Both Sides of WWE House Show Discourse

A recent episode of the HUGE POP! podcast featured Sami Zayn as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Zayn’s thoughts about the shift in crowd response to him after he defeated Carmelo Hayes in an Open Challenge match for the WWE United States Championship on the March 27th WWE SmackDown show.

“With the online noise or the real-life crowd? … Well, in a way, there is some validity to the character which is why I’m trying to incorporate it into the story arc. I’ll give you an example but, the big turning point is when I won the United States Championship. Because Carmelo (Hayes) is doing a phenomenal job, and he’s an up-and-comer. I was in that position 10 years ago where, ‘Come on. Give the guy a chance’ and whatever and then, 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. 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. There’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 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 (Rhodes) and I’m attacking Jacob (Fatu) and I’m off the rails a little bit. 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… it’s like being an actor. 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. 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. I’m not sure if that’s making sense but, I’m just saying if you actually watch the television show and nothing else — 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 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.”

Zayn also gave his thoughts about the recent inclusion of the Gingerbread Man character in his current feud with Trick Williams for the WWE United States Championship.

“The Gingerbread Man specifically? I don’t know. I think context is kind of key for all of these things, right? A couple of weeks ago — I think these were maybe back-to-back weeks. I get the timeline messed up sometimes in my head but, the one week when Trick (Williams) and Little Yachty had came out with the Gingerbread Man, and then I ended up being under the outfit and attacked them with the cane and all that. I thought that was great, and then the following week, I just had the Gingerbread Man mannequin in the ring… and beat up the Gingerbread mannequin. So, in both cases, a Gingerbread Man is kind of — I don’t wanna say the focal part of it but, kind of, right? There’s this serious WrestleMania program for the United States Championship that involves a Gingerbread Man. On paper, sounds kind of silly. But the week we did it, where it was me under the suit and I’m dancing and then I clock those guys, I thought that was great, and then the following week with the mannequin, it felt a little bit more lifeless to me. Not as great, maybe a little silly. I don’t know. It’s kind of week-to-week and it’s all in execution so I don’t think the concept of involving a Gingerbread Man on its own is ridiculous because this is pro wrestling and we do all kinds of fun things that maybe, you know, if you were on the internet and you were scrolling Twitter or whatever, and you saw a clip of guys in a ring with a Gingerbread Man, you’d be like what? But, in the world of wrestling, there’s context and it kind of makes sense and sometimes, these things get really over actually. So, I don’t think the concept of the Gingerbread Man by itself is ridiculous or silly. It’s all in execution and on a week-to-week basis. But I thought that week where the Gingerbread Man showed up with the bus and he was dapping up Trick, and then he had his own locker room, and then I’m dancing and having all this fun, then I’m just part of the celebration because the Gingerbread Man is there to troll me essentially and make fun of me, and I whack them with a cane and I break the cane on Yachty’s back, and that cane was legitimately made of I don’t know what — oak or something. It was so hard. I don’t know how it broke. I felt that was all a good piece of business and it was all fun so, I don’t take a look at things like a Gingerbread Man, and dismiss them. I just think it’s all in how you execute it, and do you put your best foot forward to commit. Commit, and when you commit, you can make things good if you’re good, and I work with a lot of really good people so, a lot of times, we can turn this stuff into really, really good things.”

Zayn also gave his thoughts about how there were ideas he’s suggested for the Gingerbread Man’s involvement in his feud with Williams and even after he’s done with Williams.

“The Gingerbread Man can be a mechanism for all kinds of fun things. There’s a lot of utility there. There’s so much you can do with it. I had all these ideas, where I could steal Gingerbread Man and now he works for me or whatever. I don’t know… Or like you said, that he keeps showing up even after I’m done with Trick (Williams)… There’s just a million things you can do. I try not to look at things and go, oh, well, that’s stupid. I don’t think you’re in the right business if that’s your mindset. You’re gonna cap yourself.”

Zayn also gave his thoughts about the on-going discourse over WWE cutting back on the amount of house show events and the perspective from both sides of the issue.

“Well, even this, like anything else, there’s polarizing views on all of it, right? So, however, I can say no matter what you think or I think or whatever, it’s pretty clear that the best way to get good at anything is to do it over and over again. So I think when you’re starting to look at stars of the future, you’re looking at Trick (Williams), you’re looking at Je’Von (Evans), Bron Breakker, Oba Femi, and guys like this. A lot of these guys just simply don’t have a lot of reps under their belt and they’re doing phenomenal, all things considered. So I just think that there’s no disputing the idea that if they get a few more reps, especially live events where, really, that’s like the true performance. That’s really what this business is. It’s you in a ring, a live house, not worried about the constraints of television time and hitting break spots and commercials and you know, it’s really just the art form at its kind of most naked and truthful form. So, I think it’s invaluable experience for those guys. I think it’s a good thing to see some returning for sure. I’m not gonna get into the business side of it as far as, you know, is it worth it from a profitability standpoint? I don’t know. There’s people that make — we have a team for that. But strictly from an artistic performance side… I’ve been doing this my whole life almost now. 20-something years. I enjoy them, but I’ll also say that there’s two separate generations going at the same time here. You have guys like Roman (Reigns) or Seth (Rollins) or myself or (CM) Punk or Drew McIntyre or Kevin Owens or Finn Bálor, all these guys that are mainstays who are on the later side of our careers and have already put in 20 years. So, doing a bunch of live events is a little harder on our bodies. So, I kind of see the merit in, well, these are a lot of your top stars and you wanna not run them into the into the road while you have ‘em. But I also see the merit in, well, these guys, the JeVons and the Bron Breakkers and the Obas, they need to get there too so I do think there’s definitely this fine line of the volume of live events. Because I don’t know if you wanna keep a lot of the guys that are current television stars or in their later years, you wanna keep them healthy for the next three, four, five years. The way it was before with like 160 live events might be a little much… Understanding the different town-to-town responses and just getting a feel for the audience, I think that’s crucial for these guys, so I do think having some of these live events around are a great thing. But the volume, I think there’s like a middle ground.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3