Sami Zayn Reveals When He Found Out He Was Headlining WrestleMania
After his historic title win at The Showcase Of The Immortals, Sami Zayn has discussed how far in advance he knew the match would be top of the bill.
On night one of WrestleMania 39, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens finally conquered The Usos to capture the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships. There had been conjecture going in to the event whether the match would headline the show, or if that spot would be given to the SmackDown Women’s Championship Match between Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair.
In the end it was the quartet which got the nod, making it the first-ever Tag Team Championship match to headline WrestleMania, and only the second tag to headline the event, with the other going all the way back to the inaugural event.
Sami Zayn has now revealed during an interview with The Daily Mail that he got wind the match would headline the show a few weeks in advance, but that there was always an asterisk against it.
I’m cautious here to not pull back the curtain too much. I had caught wind that was going to be the plan a few weeks out. But, for whatever reason, there was still this sort of – as WWE can be – this the card is subject to change mentality. It’s really unsettling. It’s like ‘let’s just commit to this, shall we?’ [laughs].
It was pencilled in as far as I know – and again, I could be wrong because I’m not behind the scenes in those meetings – but as far as I know it was pencilled in for a while, just because the story had so much investment behind it and time behind it. And, it was simply the best story heading into the event. But, there was a little bit of ‘we don’t know what might change’ and this and that.
Continuing on, Sami Zayn discussed how he wished the match had been promoted as the main event in advance.
If I had one thing to do over, I’d wish we could promote it as the night one main event for a few weeks going into it because it genuinely was historic. We love to say ‘the first this’ and ‘the biggest that’ in WWE because we’re promoters. We promote these fights. So we had a legitimate first time ever and a legitimate ‘the biggest BLANK ever’. By virtue of headlining WrestleMania, it becomes the biggest tag team title match of all-time.
To me, we had that in our corner and it was kind of a wasted opportunity not to promote to it. But I do understand there’s behind the scenes stuff, maybe stuff I’m not even aware of, caused us not to lean into it as much. But, if I could go back and do it again, I wish we could have leaned into it a little bit more.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens will defend their gold against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa at Night Of Champions, which surprised many due to the event being held in Saudi Arabia where it was not expected Zayn would perform.