Sami Zayn is grateful to be wrestling Gunther at WrestleMania this year.
The Canadian pinned Chad Gable on Raw to earn a match against the Intercontinental Champion. Zayn has a chance to end Gunther’s two-year long title reign at WrestleMania 40.
Speaking with Sportskeeda, Zayn spoke about his match with Gunther being the biggest match outside of the main event.
“I think it’s pretty big, for sure. Coming off of last year where I found myself in a really “right place, right time”. But I caught a lot of steam and momentum heading into WrestleMania in the six months or so leading into it. I ended up in the main event. Anytime you end up doing something big in any field, and when you’re able to accomplish something, there’s always a sort of ‘now what?’ on the other side of it.”
“It’s hard to sometimes keep that up, or wonder what’s next or what you can do to top it. If you watch WWE, you see how fast things move. I’m very lucky to be in a pretty good position a year later. Challenging the longest-reigning, most dominant intercontinental champion of all time. If you’re not in that top, top match with Cody [Rhodes] or Roman [Reigns] or The Rock, I’d say this is the biggest match outside of that that you could possibly want to be in. So, I’m pretty grateful to find myself in that spot, and excited about it.”
Sami Zayn Praised Gunther, But Recalls Ending His Title Reign Years Ago
Later in the interview, Zayn was filled with praise for Gunther. However, he noted that he once beat him for a championship in Germany over a decade ago, and thinks history could repeat itself at WrestleMania.
“He’s just – and I don’t know how else to say it without being reductive here – but he’s just really, really, really good! He’s just very good. I’ve known it for a very long time but I think he’s managed to continue to exceed, continue to ascend to higher and higher levels. I thought he was really good 10, 12 years ago when we got in the ring, whenever it was.”
“We had a pretty prominent match. I think we may have once or twice, I actually defeated him. He was a very prominent champion in Germany. He was a world champion for a company called WXW, which is a very prominent company based out of Germany. I defeated him and ended that reign. So, I’m wondering if maybe all these years later, history doesn’t repeat itself because he’s become this dominant champion, and I’m the one who ends that reign as well. Even back then, he was incredible.”
