Sami Zayn has talked about his history with Gunther ahead of his clash with the WWE Intercontinental Champion at WrestleMania.
Speaking to Kevin Kellam of Sportskeeda, Zayn recalled that if successful in Philadelphia, it would not be the first time he has ended a long title reign of the Austrian.
Both men wrestled under different names at the time. In May 2012, Gunther, then known as Big Van Walter, had held the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship for over a year.
He was finally dethroned on May 19th that year when he was defeated by El Generico, now Sami Zayn.
In the interview, Zayn said:
I remember we had a pretty prominent match…He was a very dominant champion in Germany.
He was a world champion for a company called wXw, which is a very prominent company based out of Germany, even still.
And he was a prominent champion and I defeated him and I ended that reign. So I’m wondering if somehow, all these years later, history doesn’t repeat itself where he’s become this dominant Intercontinental Champion and I’m the one who ends that reign as well.
Even 12 years ago, Zayn saw huge potential in Gunther:
You know, even back then he was incredible. In fact, I was even asked about him when I first started with WWE.
I had a pretty good relationship with the guy who scouted me and hired me, a guy called Canyon Ceman. And he was scouting talent all over the world.
He asked me, “What do you think of this guy?” I said, “He’s excellent, you should hire him.” And unfortunately, they didn’t right away. But eventually, I mean, talent at that level, it’s going to find its way to the top, you know, always.
Elsewhere in the interview, Zayn expressed gratitude for his spot at this year’s WrestleMania:
Coming off of last year where I found myself in a really just, you know, let’s call it right place, right time. But I caught a lot of steam and a lot of momentum heading into WrestleMania over the six months or so leading into it and ended up in the main event.
And anytime you do something big, you know, I think in any field, not just as a wrestler or an artist or whatever, but when you when you’re able to accomplish something, there’s always sort of like, “Oh, now what on the other side of it?” What could you do to top it or anything like that?
And I’m just I feel very lucky to be in a pretty good position a year later challenging, you know, the longest reigning, most dominant Intercontinental Champion of all time.
And if you’re not in that top, top match with, let’s say Cody, Roman or The Rock or whatever, I’d say this is the biggest match outside of that that you could possibly want to be in.
So I’m pretty grateful to find myself in that spot and I’m excited about it.
