Sami Zayn Recalls 'Insanity' Of WWE Talents Being Told They Shouldn't Be There If They Didn't Want To Be The Next John Cena
Sami Zayn reflects on WWE’s ‘next John Cena’ speech to talents
Pro wrestling is great. It’s an art form/sport/entertainment vehicle with something for everyone, and no ‘right’ way of doing something.
Every wrestling company on the planet has their own way of doing things, and a way of presenting their product to their audience, and in WWE’s case, this amounts to being larger than life in every way possible.
One major WWE star who ticked all their boxes was John Cena, but when WWE signed a fresh crop of talent in 2013 including Sami Zayn, their proclamation of ‘you should want to be the next John Cena’ didn’t exactly go down well, as Zayn recalled on After the Bell:
"I remember when I got to WWE, it was NXT or something like that, it was very much the mentality of, 'you should be furious that you're here. You should want to get out of here. You should want to get on the road. Everyone around you is your enemy, they are all vying for your spot. This is a competition. You have to be the best to get out of here. If you don't want to be the best, you shouldn't even work here.' I remember a line something to the extent of, 'If you don't want to be the next John Cena, you shouldn't even be here.' I remember hearing that and being completely [mouth agape]. 'What? This is insanity.' Let's just say we're in a room with 100 people, let's just say the next John Cena is in this room. There's only one, so the other 99 people in this room should be miserable at all times trying to aspire to be that person? What kind of insanity is that?" recalled Zayn.
Sami Zayn didn’t become the next John Cena, but he did become the first Sami Zayn.
H/T: Fightful
