The Royal Rumble is finally here, and there are any number of possibilities as to who will win the Title shot at WrestleMania 39. It’s difficult not to have The Honorary Uce Sami Zayn high up on that possibilities list, as he’s become one of the most popular stars in WWE as part of The Bloodline’s continuing storyline. That’s brought up some concerns about whether fans will accept anyone else winning the Rumble if Zayn doesn’t, which happened in the past with Daniel Bryan. In a new interview with Ariel Helwani, Zayn addressed the concerns and the possibility of that happening.
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“I don’t know that in the fan’s mind, maybe me and you are looking at it at a certain point or a certain way because we’re both kind of like diehards, you know? But I think there are a lot of casual fans that are kind of along for the ride. I don’t think the fans are kind of where they were five or six years ago where they would kind of revolt. Like ‘nom, Daniel Bryan’s the guy! You’re trying to give us Batista, Noooo! We’ll force you, We’ll force you! Noooo! I don’t feel that level of, like borderline contempt from the audience to like the creative direction,” Zayn said. “I feel because the story’s been so interesting there’s a little bit of trust in that it will go where it goes and it’ll still be fine.”
“I’m sure there are a lot of people pulling for me. That’s great. It’s nice to be that guy. But I don’t think it’s at a place where like Daniel Bryan was I believe in 2014, where anybody but him is going to be a disaster. And it actually was, so they had to fix it,” Zayn said.
“Whether it’s Cody, whether it’s anybody, if it’s done right you can do almost anything, you know? It has to be done well. It has to be done just right. If it’s not done right, could there be some kind of backlash to ‘man, the story made the most sense,” Zayn said. “He was the guy the fans liked. Everything was right there but they went this way’, and if they don’t do it right there is the possibility of contempt towards whoever that person is.”
“If it’s not done right it could kind of hurt that person, but you know, we work with a lot of people who know how to do things right, so if I’m not the guy, and I genuinely as of this exact conversation one day before the Royal Rumble, I have no idea what the plan is. I have nothing. I don’t know,” Zayn said.
“I try to listen to the fans. I try not to pay too much attention, too much stock in the online kind of thing, but I’m sure there’s a good percentage of, again, if you follow nothing but the storyline, the storyline it’s a layup that I would be in that conversation. What actually ends up happening is again, not in my control,” Zayn said.
The Royal Rumble kicks off on January 28th at 8 PM EST.
Who else do you want to see enter the Rumble matches? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
