Triple H has discussed Sami Zayn’s recent WrestleMania performances and how he compares to Mr. WrestleMania.
WrestleMania Saturday saw Sami Zayn bring Gunther’s 666-day reign as Intercontinental Champion to an end. In what felt like a true underdog story akin to a Rocky movie, it was only more fitting that the match took place in Philadelphia. The emotional match filled with big moves was many fans’ match of the first night and was another classic Mania match following Zayn’s equally emotional Mania victory the previous year alongside Kevin Owens.
With Zayn forever the underdog, able to get the fans to rally behind him and exciting bell-to-bell, it seems highly unlikely that Zayn would have a bad match, especially on The Grandest Stage. During the post-show press conference, Triple H was asked if the new Intercontinental Champion reminded him of another wrestler who repeatedly had great matches at WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels:
“A lot of people would look at Shawn back then [or] even now, they would see Shawn as this spectacular performer, right? Like the moves that he did. All these spectacular things that he did. Shawn was doing a lot of that at a period of time maybe before everybody else was which is why I think so many younger talent resonate towards him because he’s so good.
But the thing that made Shawn so good was his ability to pull emotion out of you. It wasn’t the moves, the moves were like the special effects. Shawn is unbelievable at getting emotional out. When you hit Shawn, and he goes down and he sells, you feel bad for him.
You want him to do better and he just can get that emotion out of you. When Shawn begins to then make a comeback begins to fire up and begins to put that anger out or whatever it is, that aggression out. You believe it and you buy into it. He’s a Pitbull when he’s on you.”
Triple H continued, explaining why Zayn is in the spot he is in and how there are similarities to Michaels:
“It’s emotion. We sell emotion. We build stories and sell emotion. It’s not the moves, it’s not the spots. It’s not the sequences or whatever, however people want to say – it’s emotion. Yes, those things all lead into it. But without it, it’s just a video game. It doesn’t mean anything.
What you saw in Sami and Gunther tonight was two people that are geniuses at pulling emotion out of you. That’s Sami’s calling card. Yes, he does spectacular things. But his ability as a performer as an actor, whatever you wanna call it, to pull that emotion out of people. It’s awesome. It’s why he is in the spot he is, it’s why he is as good as he is.”
In a follow-up interview, Sami Zayn has reacted to these comments.
Triple H Looks Back On Record-Breaking WrestleMania
Zayn’s victory in Philadelphia was a part of the biggest WrestleMania of all time. While many called the event the biggest in history due to the star power and the prospect of historic results taking place, WrestleMania 40 would only be the biggest when the final numbers came in. In the press conference the next day, Triple H confirmed that it was the most successful WrestleMania of all time in so many metrics.
H/t to SEScoops.