Sami Zayn looks back on WWE Elimination Chamber 2023, where he challenged for the world title.
At WWE Elimination Chamber 2023, Sami Zayn challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Zayn was riding a lot of momentum, and as the hometown hero, he had the crowd behind him. However, Reigns emerged victorious.
Speaking to Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Sami Zayn reflected on the memorable match. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
“One thing is, I don’t know if there is a ‘should have.’ It’s hard to evaluate on a long enough timeline,” Sami Zayn said. “It’s been (a year and a few months) since that. Seeing how it all panned out, let’s say that is where the title switch happened. Everything that has happened in the last year and a half, and there has been a lot of great programming, doesn’t happen the same. It’s the butterfly effect.
“One thing changes, all these things change. You can go back to big moments and big matches, like Brock (Lesnar) ending the (The Undertaker’s) streak. When it happened, I was in NXT at the time, I was watching it with Juice Robinson. He was so shocked and he goes, ‘It’s going to take me five years to know if this was the right decision or not.’ It’s kind of true. It’s like drafting someone in sports. You draft someone and it takes five years to know if it was the right call. It’s hard to say. There is no way for me to not answer this with bias. I am biased because it was me, it was that story, it was that point in time, in that place, in front of that crowd.”
Sami Zayn: It Would Have Been Special
Sami Zayn went on to say that him winning the match would have been an unforgettable moment. He noted that Reigns had the longer story with Cody Rhodes, but his own win would have gone down in history.
“All I’m going to say is, if I had won that night, it would have been something that lived on forever,” he said. “I get that it’s a longer story that you’re telling with Roman, and Cody is waiting in the wings, but if I’m looking at it in a bubble, in a vacuum, unquestionably, if I win it that night, that’s a moment that lives on forever. Not just as me, in that moment. As a fan, we ultimately gravitate towards special moments, special audiences, special times when everybody is collectively in a moment that you know will live forever.
“That would have been one of those moments. I don’t think there is any denying that. Whether it was the right moment for business or right choice or wrong choice, that stuff takes years to figure out. If I’m looking at it in a vacuum, all I can say is that if I had won that night, it would have gone down in history as one of the greatest moments that lived on in 10, 20 years, and you’d still be watching back just for the crowd reaction, if nothing else.”
Zayn will defend the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Bron Breakker at WWE SummerSlam.
