Sami Zayn thinks WWE World title reign may have been more likely in Vince McMahon era

Here’s how I see it. I think Hunter sees me differently from how Vince saw me, especially as a good guy.

I think Vince saw me much more as a bad guy, for a number of reasons. He saw my irksome qualities that he thought lent itself to being an irksome character. Having said that, I think things were a lot more unpredictable because of the nature of Vince’s week-to-week, kind of approach, that sometimes the marble would just fall in the right hole, and now you’re champion, whereas with Hunter, I think it’s much more he has longer-term vision, and if you’re not part of that vision, then the chances of breaking into that vision are much, much slimmer.

It’s kind of a double-edged sword. He might see me in a way that lends itself more to being in that mix and possibly winning it. But on the other hand, I could have just slipped on a banana peel and won the world title.

I just do my best. I just give the best performances I can give, I try to perform with as much emotion as possible and tell the best stories I can tell. And I hope that that eventually gets me there.

Winning the World Championship is a goal for Zayn, but it’s not something that he lives and dies by:

I’d like to win the world title once before I call it a day, there’s no question, but I don’t live and die by that. It’d be great, and I really appreciate people saying they’d love to see it. I’d love to see it too, and I hope it happens, but if it doesn’t, thank you just the same, because it’s been amazing.

Though Zayn has never been a World Champion on the WWE main roster, he does currently hold the Intercontinental title. Zayn won the championship by defeating Gunther at WrestleMania 40 last month. It put an end to Gunther’s historic 666-day reign as champion.

This was the first time in WWE history that McMahon had no involvement with WrestleMania. He resigned from WWE and its parent company TKO Group Holdings in January following the sexual abuse allegations made against him in Janel Grant’s lawsuit.

Zayn is defending the Intercontinental title against Chad Gable and Bronson Reed in a triple threat match at WWE King & Queen of the Ring in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, May 25. Before that, Zayn will face Gable in a non-title singles match on Raw next Monday.

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