Sami Zayn has been actively involved in fundraising efforts for Syria, launching a campaign called “Sami for Syria” to raise $48,000 to establish a mobile medical clinic in the country. The campaign was successful and the first mobile medical clinic is now up and running. Zayn has also received praise from The Undertaker for his work with The Bloodline storyline in WWE.
Zayn’s parents immigrated to Canada from Syria in the 1970s before he was born in 1984, and he still has family members living there. He has been following what’s happening in Syria for years and wanted to do something to help those affected by the conflict. His fundraising efforts have helped provide medical care to children in war-torn Syria.
Zayn spoke about his work with The Bloodline and his fundraising efforts on The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro. The former Honorary Uce discussed his mobile medical operations in Syria, which along with Turkey is reeling from the 7.8 earthquake that has killed over 24,000 people.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his mobile medical operation in Syria: “It’s been on my mind a lot, it’s been weighing on my mind because I feel like I need to do something for a response. But the last few days have just also been very busy, because I just — we were flying and we just got to Montreal now. So I just, you know, we’re still kind of getting settled in. But it’s obviously horrific news, and then obviously everybody here in town saw the horrific news of the daycare in Laval [where a bus crashed into a daycare in Laval, Quebec]. And it’s just like — I don’t know, it’s a lot of bad news right now at the minute.
“But where where the earthquake hit isn’t where I have any family living, but it is where — you mentioned something called Sami for Syria, that’s as you mentioned there briefly, something I started in 2017 wherein I partnered with a medical organization that had boots on the ground in Syria, and a medical sort of infrastructure set up. To where we basically got these vans and converted them and made these mobile clinics that were able to deliver medical aid to people that were otherwise stranded, or had their homes destroyed or whatever else. So we currently still have two mobile clinics operating presently, and they’re operating in the part of Syria where that devastation took place. So the person that I correspond with regard to that stuff, she’s obviously slammed with a lot of stuff. But I’ve been meaning to kind of touch in with her and see what kind of response we can do, not just for the people that are constantly in need with the mobile, medical unit and the mobile clinic but also as a direct reaction to this earthquake.”
On the possibility of bringing ‘Worlds Apart’ back for Elimination Chamber: “I mean if it were going to come back, I feel like that would be the time in place to do it. But I’ve said this in other interviews, I feel like it would kind of be taking a step backwards. And I do think maybe a new song is in the cards. But I feel like that song, even though people have a real fondness for it, it seems? It just kind of seems like from a character perspective, taking a step backwards. But at the same time, doing it for like a one-night thing in Montreal might be kinda cool, I don’t know.”
On the Undertaker praising the Bloodline storyline and his work: “Yeah it’s pretty — again, it’s just one of those things where if you had told me this 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to believe it. And if you told me five years ago, I would have been like. ‘Oh my God, that would be awesome.’ But when you tell it to me now, because of where we’ve been, I kind of think to myself, ‘Well, makes sense,’ right? Like, ‘It is good!’ I just have a bit more of a confidence about it now. Of course it’s always rewarding to hear these guys who are absolute legends. I mean — yeah, I’m not going to sit here and give you the laundry list. But a lot of guys who are really, really just greats of this industry have said a lot of great things about this storyline.
“So it’s always flattering, it’s always humbling, don’t get me wrong. But at the same time it’s just one of those things that, it would have seemed absolutely impossible or surreal a few years ago. But now it seems much more appropriate, because of you know, A, I’m a fairly realistic person. When I’m doing something good, I know it’s good. And when I’m doing something that’s not so good, I’m also aware of that too. So I’m quite aware what we’re doing is good because it’s not just me doing it. There’s a lot of players in this story that are all really performing at a top level. So I mean, I could I feel like I could say objectively anybody that has an appreciation for what we would do would be a fan of it. But of course, it’s always gratifying to hear from guys like the Undertaker. That is about as big as it gets.”