Sami Zayn earned the right to challenge GUNTHER for the WWE Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania 40. However, many fans would have preferred to see Chad Gable replace Zayn.
On a recent RAW episode, Zayn defeated Bronson Reed, JD McDonaugh, Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Gable to win the WWE Intercontinental Title #1 Contendership Gauntlet Match. Many fans wanted Gable to defeat GUNTHER and beat him for his title after a lengthy reign.
Zayn discussed Booker T’s recent comments that he was upset by the fan reaction to his big win over Gable while speaking with Josh Martinez of the Superstar Crossover Podcast.
He said, “Well, I was a little surprised to read that. Because I basically bumped into Booker on the plane. And we were just, you know, we were sitting next to each other. So we’re just talking. So it’s pretty weird to see it on the internet. And I was like, Yeah, I was very pleased with the match. It’s just unfortunate that it felt like the reaction to the win itself was a little split, if not a little more skewed towards Chad, even because we did such a great job of building chat. And he’s done a great job of building himself. You know, for sure, and when you’re a good guy, or whatever, or bad guy, and you know where you’re headed. You just want the full investment, right? You want the full scope of audience emotional investment. And I felt like this was an interesting story because it splits the emotional investment in two. So you’re only getting 50% of the pie, right? So that’s just an interesting dynamic. It’s certainly interesting because it makes it more compelling. But for sure, as a guy whose job is to rally the entire audience behind them, which is what I sometimes feel like my job is as a good guy. I was a little let down that I felt like I couldn’t get the entire audience to rally behind me.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
