Sami Zayn Reveals Why WWE SummerSlam Match Is Special To Him
Sami Zayn has a unique history when it comes to WWE’s SummerSlam event.
There was a huge match on the July 22nd edition of WWE Monday Night Raw as Bron Breakker battled Ilja Dragunov for the right to challenge Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam. The two former NXT Champions Breakker & Dragunov had a physical match that ended when Bron hit Dragunov with a Spear on the floor. Dragunov was selling a rib injury, so the referee called off the match to give Breakker the win.
Later on that same Raw, Sami Zayn and Jey Uso defeated The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor & JD McDonagh, the World Tag Team Champions, in a non-title match. After the match, Breakker attacked Zayn with a Spear. It was the second week in a row where Breakker ended Raw by hitting a Spear on Zayn.
Zayn defeated Breakker at Money in the Bank earlier this month, but it may be difficult to beat Raw’s fastest-rising star for a second time at SummerSlam on August 3rd.
In an interview with Kevin Tall of WrestlingInc, Zayn spoke about his SummerSlam match won’t be just another match since it’s in front of a huge crowd at Cleveland Browns Stadium with about 50,000 fans in attendance.
“No, it’s not that it’s another Saturday. Look, anytime you get to perform in front of whatever it is, I think 50,000 people or more are going to be there. It’s crazy. That’s not something that anybody should ever take lightly ever. No matter how many times you’ve done it, in my opinion. And we can play cool and act like it’s another day at the office; it’s not. It’s 50,000 people. That’s cool. I don’t care who you are.”
As the discussion continued, it was mentioned that Zayn has never actually had a match on a SummerSlam PLE/PPV show despite being on the WWE main roster for nearly a decade.
“But it is funny that you mentioned, I’ve never actually been on SummerSlam. People don’t know that because I’ve had a really pretty decent career, and especially these last few years, I’ve had a really good WrestleMania track record, if you look back at all my WrestleMania’s, especially over the last three years. But if you go back my entire career, I’ve had a great WrestleMania track record. SummerSlam, I’ve never even been on the show.
I did work one SummerSlam pre-show, I want to say maybe 2015 or something. And believe it or not, it was actually the Dudley Boyz last ever match as a team. So we do all that distinction myself and Adrian Neville at the time, Pac, as he’s known today.”
That SummerSlam event was in 2016 actually with Zayn & Neville beating The Dudley Boyz on the pre-show.
Sami Zayn Is Looking Forward To His SummerSlam Match
The discussion took place before Breakker confirmed that he would face Zayn at SummerSlam. Zayn would go on to talk about being excited about the match.
“Yeah, I’m not a SummerSlam guy. It’s weird. More of a WrestleMania guy than a SummerSlam guy. So it’ll be nice to get on the show and hopefully have a pretty good match that people care about because people seem to be really into, well, they seem to be into everything really these days. But I think they’re excited to see how this stuff with Breakker and myself and who knows how Ilja Dragunov factors in. I don’t know.”
As for who might win that Sami Zayn-Bron Breakker match, there have been reports that suggest that Breakker is likely going to beat Zayn at SummerSlam so that Bron can claim his first main roster title. However, as WWE fans know, anything can and plans can always change too.