Sami Zayn Says He Never Dreamed Of Winning WWE Title Or Main-Eventing WrestleMania

Sami Zayn is among an elite list of individuals who've both main-evented a WrestleMania event and won a WWE world championship. Surprisingly, he never dreamed of doing either, however.

According to Zayn, both feats went beyond his wildest dreams as a young wrestling fan.

"I used to say I have ideas; I don't have plans," Zayn told "Insight With Chris Van Vliet." "I know I'd like to get there, so I kind of generally work towards something, and then it ends up being there. Then you end up getting there, but I don't map it out."

"... I never looked at it like I want to be the champion," he continued. "I just looked at it like I want to do that. Maybe that's all-encompassing, I want to do that well, and I want to do it well enough to invoke the same reactions that my favorites get, and in thereby invoking those reactions maybe lead to the same championship wins or wonderful legacy that my heroes had."

In a span of three months, Zayn became a two-time world champion in WWE. His first reign kicked off at Night of Champions on June 27 as he pinned Cody Rhodes amidst a triple threat to win the Undisputed WWE Championship. At the time, Zayn noted that no matter how long his title run lasted, he'd feel forever grateful as the concept of it had long felt "unfathomable" to him.

Zayn's first reign ultimately stretched nine days, coming to an end at the hands of CM Punk on "WWE Raw." Two months later on "WWE SmackDown," the two met in a rematch, with Zayn emerging victorious after overcoming interference from Kevin Owens to officially begin his second run with the title.

Back in 2023, Zayn and Owens had fulfilled another fantastical feat, together: winning the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles in the main event of WrestleMania 39 night one. Like world championship gold, Zayn noted that the younger version of himself never envisioned his older self as a headliner on WWE's grandest stage. In fact, he believes the concept only came into circulation within the last decade.

"Here's one that I like to pick on a lot, but people are like, 'It was my dream to main event WrestleMania.' I'm like, 'Let's hold on for a sec.' This whole main-eventing WrestleMania thing became a talking point like in the last 10 years," Zayn said. "You know what I mean? No kid's like, 'One day I'll be the main event!' Because when you're a kid, you're not thinking, at least I'm not, you're not thinking in terms of like commercial success. You're just thinking about like, 'I want to do that.'"

Zayn acknowledged that some of his peers might have genuinely pictured themselves as a main event performer on "The Grandest Stage of Them All." His 11-year-old self, however, was only able to follow the abstract idea of wrestling in general.

"It's not that cleanly articulated. It's just like, 'Wow, I want to do that,'" Zayn reiterated.

At WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles, Zayn and Owens dethroned Jimmy and Jey Uso as Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions after delivering a stunner followed by a Helluva Kick. Their reign went on to span five months, later coming to an end at the hands of the Judgment Day at that year's WWE Payback premium live event.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight With Chris Van Vliet" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.