Sami Zayn remembers WWE having a pretty intense mentality when he first arrived in NXT. The message was basically that everyone needed to be chasing the very top, but Zayn thinks taking that mindset too literally can leave a locker room full of miserable people.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Zayn was originally asked whether becoming WWE Champion was something he dreamed about as a kid. That eventually turned into a much bigger conversation about constantly chasing accomplishments and never allowing yourself to enjoy what you’ve already done.
Zayn brought up The Undertaker’s WWE Hall of Fame speech as an example. He made it clear he has enormous respect for Undertaker, but one part about never being satisfied stuck with him because his own outlook is a little different.
“And that’s a slippery slope. Sure. Okay, I don’t want to get myself in trouble. I remember distinctly — let me preface this by saying I have all the respect in the world for The Undertaker, okay? But I remember him saying distinctly in his WrestleMania Hall of Fame speech, he was almost like a TED Talk, right? He kind of gave his thing of, like, here were my three rules during my career, whatever. And he said something along the lines of, like, ‘Never be content,’ or ‘Never be satisfied.’ And I remember thinking, wow, that is such a different mentality from what I have. On some level, I completely agree, and I actually embody that as well.”
Zayn understood the point was really about staying hungry, but he thinks there’s a big difference between wanting more and convincing yourself that whatever you’ve already accomplished isn’t good enough.
That mentality was something he heard plenty of during his early WWE days. Zayn recalled NXT having a particularly aggressive way of getting that message across, including telling wrestlers that if they didn’t want to become the next John Cena, they didn’t belong there.
“And I think that’s it. But the term, I guess the exact phrasing of not being satisfied — I’m saying the difference between being aspirational and not being satisfied. I know that sounds like a small difference, but it could be a chasm. There could be a world of difference there. Because if you’re not satisfied, then you’re just not appreciating what you’re doing while you’re doing it. You know what I’m saying? This isn’t enough, and this isn’t enough. And there’s a dangerous line where you just become — I don’t want to say, what’s the word I’m looking for here? You just want to appreciate what you’re doing. You want to be satisfied. I think you should be satisfied if you’re doing good work and you’re proud of it. But take inventory of it and go like, I’m getting to do this incredible thing. Is there more I’d like to achieve? Absolutely. And you can be aspirational. And obviously, I am aspirational, or I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair right now talking to you. I wouldn’t have ended up here.
But I just think it’s such a slippery slope. We do talk about that. I’ve heard that, and Undertaker’s Hall of Fame speech was not the only time I’ve heard that since I got to this company. When I first got to NXT, there was a lot of that. I know the messaging is correct in what they’re saying, of like, have that hunger, strive for more. But the way it was sometimes phrased or packaged would be, ‘If you don’t want to be the next John Cena, you don’t belong in this building.’ Well, there’s only one John Cena. There’s a hundred recruits here. That’s a recipe for 99 miserable people who are just walking around pissed off because they’re not John Cena.
Let’s all just take a breath. You know what I’m saying? I think it’s important to be aspirational when you’re in this kind of industry. I just think clarity and perspective are very, very important, not just in wrestling, in life. I just don’t think it’s healthy to get bogged down sometimes by these achievement-based things. To circle all back to what your question was in the beginning, this achievement-based sort of thing, like, ‘I want to be this,’ because if it’s that, then it’s like, if you are not that, then you’re this constant failure in your head. And I just think that’s a slippery slope. And we’re so lucky. We’re so lucky. If you’re doing this at this level, you’re one of the luckiest people in the world.”
Zayn’s point wasn’t that wrestlers shouldn’t want to become champion or reach John Cena’s level. He just doesn’t think failing to reach that almost impossible standard should make somebody feel like their entire career was a failure.
Interestingly enough, Zayn remembers Triple H being one of the people in NXT who actually pushed back against that kind of thinking. While some coaches were stressing that everyone needed to fight for the top spot, Triple H would remind wrestlers that the NXT years they were so desperate to escape would eventually be gone.
“And I say this now, and I’m not saying this as somebody who’s retired or anything. Hunter will say this all the time now because he’s retired, and he didn’t know when he was going to retire. He had a health condition that slammed the brakes. He didn’t know his last match was his last match. Exactly. And he would tell guys all the time — and to be fair to him, in NXT he always did provide that perspective. While other coaches, or while sometimes the overall narrative in NXT was like, ‘If you’re not hungry to be the champion, you don’t belong in this room,’ and ‘The next guy’s trying to take your spot,’ and all this really, I don’t know, capitalist, crazy way of looking at the world. Hunter always did provide that perspective of like, ‘Guys, these are the days. These are the days of your lives, and enjoy it because I promise it’ll be over before you know it.’ And then it’s just gone.
And he’s right. NXT, when I was in it, felt like an eternity. It felt like those days would last forever. And it was three years, which at the time just went on and on and on because you’re like, when am I going to get to the main roster? When am I going to get to do this? And then the day you’re called up, it’s over forever. You will never go back to NXT. You’ll never go back to living the way you lived then.
So enjoy it while it’s there because it was a beautiful time in my life, and I have so many friendships, very profound friendships from that time because you’re all in this same kind of struggle together. That was a beautiful thing. And I just think sometimes when you get too aspirational-minded, you just kind of miss the forest for the trees.”
Looking back, those three years in NXT that once seemed endless are now something Zayn remembers as a pretty special part of his life. His issue was never with wrestlers being ambitious — he just thinks there’s a point where constantly worrying about becoming the next huge star can stop someone from appreciating the career they’re already having.
Do you agree with Sami Zayn’s take on the pressure wrestlers face to constantly chase the next big accomplishment? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
