Inside the ropes Sami Zayn is a former NXT Champion, former WWE Intercontinental Champion and one time Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion.
However, one of Zayn biggest career achievements to date has been the success of his “Sami For Syria” initiative. The fundraiser which aims to help with the current humanitarian crisis in Syria, has already been a huge success in helping people in need of urgent healthcare.
Speaking in a recent interview with Renee Paquette on her podcast, Oral Sessions, Zayn opened up about the origins of the initiative and what made him want to get involved.
“Thank you for asking about the Sami for Syria stuff because I’m always eager to talk about it and get as many eyeballs on it as possible. Obviously I have a close connection with Syria, I’m Syrian, all this stuff, but really it was born out of the realisation that I felt like a big phoney and a big kind of hypocrite, because I didn’t do anything. I felt like I was one of these people who’s like ‘that’s awful’ and I felt like I could pat myself on the back because I think it’s awful, ‘most people don’t even care, but at least I care’, but what does that do really?
There was a point where I had to come face to face with that realisation that you don’t get points for caring. I came face to face with the realisation that I wasn’t doing anything, and so I started looking into the possibility of ‘what can I do?’. So I started researching and my brother’s an activist, he’s done a lot of work with bringing refugees over to Canada, like Syrian refugees. I wanted to help the people that were stranded in there, and that’s something that previously I felt completely powerless to do– like where do you even begin? So you think there’s this massive company like Unicef and you think ‘I’ll just donate to them’.
This was a bit more involved and I got to get to bounce ideas with them to where I could be more involved, and I saw all of million things that they do and I saw that they do mobile clinics, so I said ‘well wait a minute, what if I raised money, could we start a mobile clinic?’ and they kinda looked at the need for it and if they could facilitate it and all this stuff and it was a possibility, and so that’s how it all started.”
Back in the world of WWE, Zayn is set to clash with long-time friend and rival Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 37. While it has also been revealed that YouTube sensation and occasional WWE SmackDown co-star Logan Paul will also be in attendance.
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Inside The Ropes will have live coverage of the show when WrestleMania 37 night 1 kicks off at 1am BST on Saturday April 10th, followed by night 2 at 1am on Sunday April 11th!