WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn names his top 5 wrestling influences

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WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn talks about life as a pro wrestler and the influences that contributed to his success in the ring. Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00I don't think it's really changed me at all, to be honest with you.

00:14Being NXT champion, I don't think is, it's something I definitely wanted, and it's something

00:18I worked hard to, you know, attain, but I'm pretty much the same person with the championship

00:24or without.

00:25You know, it's just, to me, it's a big feather in my cap that it was something I set out

00:29to do, and I was able to do it, but it doesn't really change who I am or how I act, you know.

00:39My finishing move is called the Halluva Kick.

00:42It's basically, I park myself in one corner of the ring, and I have an opponent prone

00:47on the opposite corner, and when I see that my time is right, I charge from across the

00:52ring and kick him in the face, yep.

01:00I mean, you have to, you have to wrestle Steve Austin, right, like Stone Cold Steve Austin

01:04was the man, and I actually hated him at the time because I was such a Bret Hart fan.

01:09I was such a little, like, meh, like, it just really got to me, and he had such a personal

01:15rivalry with Bret that it took me years to forgive him.

01:19I'm pathetic.

01:20I acknowledge this.

01:22It took me years to forgive him, like, probably five years.

01:25Like, I only started to appreciate him in maybe 2001, five years after he was feuding

01:31with Bret Hart.

01:32That's what a, like, fanboy I was, you know.

01:34So, yeah, yeah, he was just awesome.

01:40Shawn Michaels before his injury, I think one of the best wrestlers of all time.

01:45I think it's pretty unanimous there, and The Rock would be cool just because he's, you

01:50know, The Rock, and he was super over, and people loved him, and, yeah, he's really popular.

01:56People really liked him.

01:57It'd be fun to be in the ring just with that kind of atmosphere and electricity surrounding

02:01the match.

02:02I mean, even if they had no idea who I was, you know, if I'm kicking The Rock, they're

02:06going to care, you know.

02:14Well, NXT Revolution was a very big night for me, and part of the reason it was so big

02:20for me was because Kevin Owens, who was a long-time friend of mine, long-time friend,

02:24foe, just everything you can possibly be with someone, we've had that relationship for the

02:29last 12 years.

02:32Our careers have been linked like this, yes, like, you couldn't say my name without his,

02:37and vice versa.

02:38So, it was such a big night for me because not only was I, you know, had this big match

02:42with my career on the line, and the championship on the line, and everything against Adrian

02:46Neville, who's also one of my best friends and best opponents.

02:49But it was the night that NXT, you know, he was finally, Kevin Owens was finally debuting

02:53in NXT.

02:54So, it was, I felt like it was my debut in a weird way too, like, I watched his match

02:58from the back, and like, I was welling up with tears, I was so proud, you know.

03:03And so, I maybe should have seen it coming, but I kind of, I just didn't.

03:09And it hurt, obviously.

03:10It caused some damage, and I was off TV for a few weeks, but, you know, here we are.

03:16The live special is just around the corner, February 11th, so.

03:26If it were up to Sami, I'd, you know, yeah, sure, whatever.

03:29Yeah, yeah.

03:30Well, I would defend this first, and maybe when I lost it.

03:33If I lost it, I'd go.

03:34I don't know.

03:36If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere between six months and a year.

03:40I don't know.

03:43To me, it's an inevitability that I'll end up there.

03:46It's just a matter of when.

03:47So instead of stressing about, you know, when, when, when, and not enjoying the ride, I mean,

03:51like, I'm the NXT champion now.

03:53That's a pretty big deal.

03:54And so, I want to enjoy that, you know what I mean?

03:56While I'm here, and while I have it, and while NXT is growing as a brand, seemingly by the

04:01day, it's just getting bigger and bigger, and getting more and more of a cult following

04:05within the WWE universe.

04:07Like, within such a wide global fan base, there's this undercurrent of people going

04:12like, wait, are you watching this?

04:14You know, NXT here?

04:15Because no one's really talking about it, but it's getting really good.

04:18So it's sort of bubbling underneath the surface, and, you know, that's something I'm kind of

04:23comfortable with, just based on my career, my background on the independents, it's sort

04:27of like, you know, underground, and that speaks to me as a person, that sort of underground

04:32following.

04:33So it's something I'm happy to be a part of, and I'll be sad when that chapter of my career

04:39is done, but I'll be happy, because the new chapter, you know, on Raw and SmackDown, and

04:44all these major pay-per-views will have begun, so it's win-win for me.

04:52It can't just be a dream, it has to be a goal, because dreams are just dreams, unless you

04:58put the work in, and that sacrifice that I'm talking about, that's part of putting the

05:02work in.

05:03So, you know the difference between a dream and a goal, and if it's something you really

05:08want, make it your goal.

05:10Oh my God, that's a tough one.

05:18What I'll do, because it's so subjective and so personal, is I'll just tell you five people

05:23that influenced me, okay?

05:26When I was a very, like, this is kind of why I'm a wrestler.

05:30These five people, I've narrowed it down.

05:33From a very young age, it was Hulk Hogan.

05:35That's kind of what introduced me to wrestling.

05:37I think a lot of people's introduction to wrestling, people from my age group, was Hulk

05:40Hogan, so that, you know, Hogan and the spectacle that he kind of embodied, and the just grand,

05:49you know, spectacle and theatrics of Hulk Hogan, I think first drew me to wrestling,

05:54and that's where I knew I'm in love with this, and I probably want to do this, you know?

05:59But when you're five, you don't really realize, like, this will be my career.

06:01You don't know, you don't know anything, but you know you like it, so I knew I liked it.

06:06And then as I got a little bit older, Bret Hart became, like, my hero, totally my hero.

06:11And you know, right up until my sort of teenage years, Mankind became, Mick Foley became a

06:19huge influence on me, because he was so unorthodox, and you know, he was so willing to, like,

06:26his style was so sacrificial, right?

06:29Like he would really give every fiber of his being, yeah, you could tell that there was

06:35that passion that drove him, and that, like, spoke to me.

06:40And then I guess right before I started getting trained, what really took over for me was

06:43the Hardy Boys, because again, these were guys that were, you know, not enormous, very

06:48unorthodox looking, that seemed like a realistic goal, and they were guys that, like, wrestled

06:54in their backyard, just like me and my friends, and like, they had this lofty goal, and then

06:58all of a sudden they showed up, and you know, doing all these acrobatic things that, like,

07:02you know, they just really, really, it resonated with me.

07:05And I think those are the five biggest influences I had.

07:08I don't think they're necessarily the five best wrestlers of all time, although you could

07:11make a case that, you know, a few of them definitely are, but, you know, there's guys

07:16like Shawn Michaels or Eddie Guerrero or Steve Austin that I think belong on that, like,

07:21best wrestlers of all time list, but these are just the five people that probably influenced

07:24me most into getting to where I am right now.

07:28This is WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn, and you're watching GNTV.

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