Sami Zayn clarifies Booker T's comments on his response to gauntlet win fan reaction

[Chris]

Booker T mentioned on his Hall of Fame podcast recently that Zayn had been upset by the response to his win. However, Zayn clarified during a recent interview with the Superstar Crossover Podcast that his comments "seem like a bigger deal" than they were but he was still a little deflated by the reaction.

Zayn was asked about Booker's comments and responded:

I was a little surprised to read that (laughs) cause I basically bumped into Booker on the plane. We were just sitting next to each other. We were just talking so it was pretty weird to see it on the internet (laughs).
All this to say, I was very happy with the performance because he was talking about the performance itself, the match itself. And I was like, ‘I was very pleased with the match, it’s just unfortunate that it felt like the reaction to the win itself was a little split, if not a little more skewed toward Chad even' because we did such a great job of building Chad and he's done a great job of building himself.
I felt like this was an interesting story because it splits the emotional investment in two. So you're only getting 50 percent of the pie, right? So that's just an interesting dynamic. It is interesting because it makes it more compelling but as a guy whose job is to rally the entire audience behind him, which is what I sometimes feel like my job is as a good guy, I was a little let down that I felt like I couldn't get the entire audience to rally behind me….that’s not even entirely true. During the match itself, it (felt) like they were very happy and invested in the whole thing but the online backlash or the day after, just with people feeling a little disappointed for for Chad, which is very understandable, just was a little deflating.
But again this is just something I was kind of articulating to (Booker T) as two veterans kind of shooting the breeze on the plane so I think maybe once it gets out online it seems like a bigger deal than it is.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/sami-zayn-says-reaction-to-wwe-raw-gauntlet-win-was-a-little-deflating

 

[Canadian Dragon]

reasonable take

 

[Jacob Fox]

People who are fans of Chad (as myself) are thoroughly used to the disappointment. We should expect it.

 

[Cwalker]

Most people(myself included) wanted Chad in that spot.

But if they weren’t gonna do a Triple Threat for the WHC, Sami really didn’t fit anywhere else on the card I guess

 

[Chris]

I was thinking yesterday how it would have actually made so much more sense for Sami to be Cody's partner instead of Seth even tho I've enjoyed Seth in the role.

But why does he need to wrestle twice, putting Sami on the spot woulda freed up Gable too. And if Gunther really was gonna get Brock originally where tf would that have even left Sami

 

[Deezy]

Don't tell Booker T nothing.......chatty Cathy.

 

[Jacob Fox]

Most people(myself included) wanted Chad in that spot.

Me too, I have been a fan of his for a long time... although the Shorty G year was pretty hard...

 

[Cwalker]

For as bad as the name Shorty G was, the crowd got behind him.

They really wanted to see him go over Corbin in the KOTR

 

[Chris]

For as bad as the name Shorty G was, the crowd got behind him.

They really wanted to see him go over Corbin in the KOTR

Yeah I remember noting this at the time but then as usual there was no follow up even though I think they even gave him a fluke win over Corbin right after KOTR

 

[Jacob Fox]

Yeah I remember noting this at the time but then as usual there was no follow up even though I think they even gave him a fluke win over Corbin right after KOTR

I have to admit I didn't watch a lot of his stuff during that run because I felt WWE was disrespecting him with that gimmick. Normally when they do that to someone I really like, I have to tune that out.

Similar to the reason I took a five year hiatus as a wrestling fan when WCW basically made Ric Flair a joke and Hogan's whipping boy. As I know more about Ric nowadays than I did then, it probably wouldn't have bugged me so much but I didn't really know how bad of a person he really was.

 

[Dom's cellmate]

I see Sami probably going heel sometime before the year is over.