Sami Zayn looks to make history in just a matter of hours when he battles Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Elimination Chamber.
WWE Superstars have been doing the media rounds in the days leading up to the event. Zayn spoke with Zak Ralph of Love Wrestling about his storybook journey from wrestling in billiard halls to the biggest match of his career.
It’s going to be an electric atmosphere when Zayn’s music hits in Montreal. Some fans may be surprised to see Zayn headlining a premium live event, but he feels it feels right.
“Like on the one hand, it feels like the next logical step. When you look at it on a week to week level, or you look at a month to month level. If you follow this story with the Bloodline, and you’ve seen how it’s progressed,” said Zayn. “That’s like, yeah, naturally, that’s where you go next, right? But when you stop and kind of zoom out, and you take a look back, and you look at it on a longer timeline, and you look at it from day one, as a 13 year old kid, going to the Bell Center, and watching Bret and Shawn, in that arena, and to now 25 years later be at the center of a match almost has that same level of excitement and anticipation.”
Zayn says he’s in somewhat of a surreal position, but he’s making sure to take it all in and appreciate how special this is.
Sami Zayn’s Helluva Kick
If Zayn can pull off the impossible at Elimination Chamber, there’s a decent he’ll employ his Helluva Kick to finish off Roman Reigns. Zayn revealed how AEW commentator Excalibur is partially responsible for the name of his Yakuza kick in the corner.
“When I was a kid, I had a WCW magazine, and I was reading some match results. It said Chris Jericho defeated Syxx or maybe it was the other way around with a hell of a kick. It was written ‘helluva’”‘ like that, and I thought it was a Helluva kick, so I thought it was a type of kick.
So I told this story to Excalibur, who now does commentary on AEW every Wednesday. I told this story to him at dinner one time at Denny’s after a PWG show, then we started calling the running Yakuza kick in the corner that I would do at the time, we started calling it a Helluva kick. So that’s actually the real history of that name.”
Check back at SEScoops later tonight for our WWE Elimination Chamber live coverage.
H/T to Zak Ralph of Love Wrestling for the transcribed quotes