Sami Zayn Talks Feuding With Kevin Owens, If WWE Was Always A Goal, Is His Shoulder Completely Healed?

WWE Superstar Sami Zayn recently spoke with the Post Crescent‘s Mike Thiel in advance of next Monday’s RAW in Green Bay. 

Sami talks about getting to WWE, feuding with Kevin Owens in the past and today, and more. You can read a few highlights below: 

Was Sami Zayn’s goal always WWE, or was he happy being successful on the indie circuit? 

I always wanted to end up in WWE and I think anyone (in sports entertainment) wants to do this at the highest level and that happens to be WWE. So WWE was always my goal, but I really enjoyed every minute of the independent circuit. It’s not so much about the destination as it is the journey, and in this case, it’s actually a combination of both.

Sami Zayn talks about his longstanding feud with Kevin Owens: 

Yeah, I started my career with Kevin. I first met him in 2002 and it’s funny because the friendly competitive nature between us was evident since day one. WWE was my ultimate goal, but it was a million miles away in 2002, so my immediate goal was just to be one of the best wrestlers in Quebec. At that time, 2002 and 2003, I was quickly earning a reputation and my name was being tossed around as one of (Quebec’s) best, and the other name was Kevin’s. I think the competitive rivalry between us is what pushed us to grow at each level. … Without him, I probably wouldn’t be here, and without me, he wouldn’t be here. We’ve actually used each other to push each other and we basically had a rivalry or partnership our entire careers. We’ve been linked together ever since we started.

How is Sami’s shoulder injury; has it changed how he wrestles? 

It’s still not 100 percent, but it’s very manageable. The big difference now is I have to be a lot more conscious of my movements and more aware of what I should and shouldn’t do. … That’s what happens as your career progresses and your body gets older. You just have to learn to work around your injuries and those are lessons I started picking up on the independents. In the 11 years before getting to WWE, injuries were inevitable, so you’d get hurt and you’d wrestle through them back then. You didn’t have a top-notch medical team like WWE has. You basically had no one, so you learned to work around your injuries and in a weird way, it actually made me a better performer.