During Saturday’s WWE WrestleMania 40 (Night One) pay-per-view event, Sami Zayn won a David vs. Goliath battle as he defeated GUNTHER to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
During the post-WWE WrestleMania 40 (Night One) media scrum, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque addressed comparisons between Zayn and WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.
Triple H discussed how Zayn and HBK are both capable of performing amazing moves, but it’s their ability to capture the audience’s emotions that is crucial.
You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:
On Michaels’ talents: “A lot of people would look at Shawn back then — even now. And they would see Shawn as this spectacular performer, the moves that he did and all these spectacular things that he did. Shawn was doing a lot of that at a period of time, maybe before everybody else was. Which is why I think so many younger talent resonate towards him, because he was so good. But the thing that made Shawn so good was his ability to pull emotion out of you. It wasn’t the moves. The moves were like the special effects. Shawn is unbelievable at getting emotion out. So when you hit Shawn and he goes down and he sells, you feel bad for him. you want him to do better. And you want him to do batter, and e just can get that emotion out of you. When Shawn begins to then make a comeback, and begins to fire up, and begins to put that anger out or whatever it is, that aggression out, you believe it and you buy into it. And he is a pitbull when he’s on you. It’s emotion. We sell emotion. We build stories and sell emotion. It’s not the moves, it’s not the spots. It’s not the sequences or however people want to say it. It’s emotion. Yes, those things lead into it. But without it, it’s just a video game or a — you know, it doesn’t mean anything.”
On Zayn’s similar skillset: “What you saw in Sami and Gunther tonight was two people that are geniuses at pulling emotion out of you. And that’s Sami’s his calling card. Yes, he does spectacular things. But his ability as a performer, as an actor, as whatever you want to call it to pull that emotion out of people? It’s awesome, and it’s why he’s in the spot he’s in. It’s why he’s as good as he is. Thank you.”
