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Sami Zayn comments on potential fan backlash if he doesn’t win the 2023 men’s WWE Royal Rumble

Aaron Rift

During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BTSport.com, Sami Zayn commented on potential fan backlash if he doesn’t win the 2023 men’s WWE Royal Rumble match…

“I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t know that in the fans’ minds, maybe me and you are looking at a certain point a certain way because we’re kind of like diehards, but I think there’s a lot of casual fans that are just kind of along for the ride. And I don’t think the fans are kind of where they were five, six years ago, where they kind of would like revolt. And were like, ‘No! Daniel Bryan is the guy. You’re trying to give us Batista? No! We’ll force you!’

I don’t feel that level of borderline contempt from the audience towards the creative direction. I think because the story has been so interesting. There’s a little bit of trust in that It’ll go where it goes, and it’ll still be fine. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are pulling for me; that’s great. It’s nice to be that guy. But I don’t think it’s at a place where like, Daniel Bryan was, I believe, in 2014, where it’s like anybody but him is going to be a disaster and it actually was, so they had to fix it. They had to play clean up. So I don’t think that it’s necessarily the same. Is there a possibility of like, whether it’s Cody, whether it’s anybody, if it’s done right, you can do almost anything. It has to be done well and has to be done just right. If it’s not done right, could there be some kind of backlash to well, the story made the most sense. He was the guy the fans liked, everything was right there, but they went this way. And if they don’t do it right there is the possibility of contempt toward whoever that person is.” (quote courtesy of WrestleZone.com)