Sami Zayn reflects on headlining WrestleMania 39.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn made history in the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night One when they challenged The Usos in the first WWE Tag Team Championship match to ever headline the company’s marquee event.
During a recent interview with Alex McCarthy of Inside The Ropes, Zayn shared about how proud he was of this remarkable WrestleMania match.
“It’s something I’m very proud of for sure, and I think there’s a lot of reasons to be proud,” Zayn said. “I think you touched on part of it, which is the story that got us there because you’ve never actually seen a tag team title match main event WrestleMania. It’s unheard of. There’s only ever been one tag team match to headline WrestleMania, and it was WrestleMania 1. Then, you know, the tag team titles have always sort of been in the background, and that’s a testament to The Usos, The Bloodline, and the whole story how they’ve elevated those titles.”
Zayn noted that he was particularly proud to reach the WrestleMania main event through the long-term storyline rather than the traditional Royal Rumble winner to WrestleMania headliner pipeline (although that is still something he would be pleased with). But when it came to finding out that his match would indeed close out Night One, Zayn said he was privy to the idea a few weeks out.
“Cautious here not to pull back the curtain too much, but I had caught wind of that was going to be the plan a few weeks out,” Zayn revealed. “But, for whatever reason, there was still this sort of ‘card subject to change’ mentality, which was really unsettling. Because it’s just like, ‘Let’s just commit to this, would you?’ But as far as I know, it was penciled in for a while just because the story had so much investment behind it and so much time sunk into it. And it was simply the best story going into the event.”
If there was one thing he could change, Zayn says he wishes WWE would’ve promoted their match as the main event.
“If I had one thing to do over, it’s I wish that we could have promoted it as the Night One main event for a few weeks going into it because it genuinely was historic.” Zayn conceded that he’s not aware of what the thought process was behind the scenes, but thought there was an opportunity to lean into hyping the historic moment.”
Zayn and Owens will defend the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa at WWE Night of Champions. More information is available here.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
