Sami Zayn

The game has changed since the '80s, where you could punch and kick and headlock and do one suplex, and that's a 25 minute match.

I've been beat up pretty badly back in my day.

I have been in the ring with Kevin Owens for about 12 years; I'm used to getting beat up.

I'm a Canadian citizen, but I do have a green card.

If I can be a positive Arab figure on such a large platform such as the WWE, and become some sort of an inspiration to an Arab kid in Lebanon, Egypt, or Jordan, then that's amazing.

I do feel, in a lot of ways, that I'm living proof that anything is possible.

I've worked in front of crowds of two hundred that sounded like a thousand, and I've worked in front of crowds of five thousand that sounded like two hundred. It really varies with the energy level with any given crowd on any given night.

A crowd's a crowd, and to me, it's not so much about the size as much it is the energy we're getting.

The Full Sail crowd, it's a pretty unique and a pretty distinct environment. It's very close quarters and a bit more of what I'm used to from my days on the independents. But the truth is, I sometimes think that it's harder to win over a small crowd sometimes than it is to win over a big crowd.

I have that inherent performer personality.

Neville and I are big fans of ska. He's actually more into original, Jamaican, skinhead, two-tone ska from England, but I'm more into punk ska - Operation Ivy and stuff Rancid would do.

I just want to win the world title; I don't want to be a guy that Vince McMahon looks at and says, 'Never. We can't.'

The heel I want to be is real mouthy, which is fine, but I want to be a guy that can be taken seriously to win the world title.

I'm bad at fishing for information.

I have no pokerface.

I hate the word 'annoying!'

I always wanted to be a wrestler when I grew up.

I have always loved wrestling and grew up watching it - my earliest memories include watching Hulk Hogan.

Even when you just hear the word 'Syria,' it packs a lot of political connotations.

When I was 17 years old, I was given the opportunity to be trained as a wrestler. At the time, I never really thought about making it a career. I only saw it as a chance to do something that I always wanted to do.

As a kid growing up in Montreal, I wanted to become either a hockey player or a wrestler. Since my family didn't have a lot of money, my parents never put me in a hockey league because it was so expensive.

When I was playing street hockey, I really thought that I had some skills!

Russ Courtnall was my absolute favorite player. Patrick Roy was there, too, of course.

Your priorities change when you get older.

If my parents didn't come to Canada in the '70s, I probably wouldn't be living my dream to be a WWE superstar.

If there's a cause you believe in, go out there, get active, and do it.

Any time I'm donating to charity, I feel it's very daunting.

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine got a job on a wrestling radio show in Montreal, and he found a local professional wrestler who was able to train us.

I always consider myself Syrian. I just happen to be born in Canada.

I think you've still got to try to be good, day-to-day. You see a granny, you hold the door open for her. You just try to do the right thing. I don't know if that makes you a saint or the greatest guy in the world, but trying is a start.

I believe in just being yourself, and the whole kit and caboodle comes with it.

I love hearing positive things; somewhere, way deep down, I'm sure I'm an egomaniac. I guess all performers are, in a way.

Montreal is my home town - I love it to death - but Toronto, I think, might have to be the best market in Canada. From a numbers perspective, it definitely is. The fans are incredible, and every time we go there, it sells out. It's awesome, and the fans are incredible.

If I had to explain what WrestleMania was to someone who's never seen wrestling, never seen WWE, never heard of the concept of WrestleMania, I would show them a five second video clip of The Rock and Hulk Hogan standing motionless in the ring while 70,000 people are jumping up and down.

I don't think there's anything that defines WrestleMania more than Hulk Hogan and The Rock standing across from each other and the crowd going ballistic.

The more work you put in, and the more you constantly and consistently give good performances against good opponents and constantly exceed people's expectations, the more you really endear yourself to the crowd. That's how your career takes off - it's just consistency and time.

Selfishly, it feels great for me to do something that might put a smile on someone else's face.

I belong in the ring.

Sitting on the sidelines is so painful because it's very difficult for me to watch wrestling and not be a participant in the ring, since that's just where I belong.

I don't ever want to be boring.

The Hardys were a huge influence on me becoming a wrestler. Not so much the moves themselves, but the concepts behind the moves: trying to be innovative and just being exciting.

I was always a wrestling fan, and being an Arab kid who grew up in Canada, there was no representation for people like me.

I don't know if it's a male thing, but a lot of our emotions end up manifesting themselves in the form of anger.

Lifelong wrestling fans who are discovering NXT and being like, 'Wait, this is the kind of wrestling I used to like,' or, 'I like this' - it's succinct. It's an hour long. You've got some great wrestlers, and you've got great storytelling, and it's simple, and it's gritty.

Sometimes you have to say what's on your mind if it's something that's really important to you.

I want to do something that has never been done, and that's become the first two-time NXT Champion. In a sense, that's a strange distinction to want, but that has to be my goal while I'm in NXT.

It's got to be repetition of me over and over again, constantly delivering the goods every time I'm out there. And that's how I'm going to get to where I need to be, which is in an important match at WrestleMania every year.

I think it's important for youngsters from all walks of life to have some sort of representative that they can look up to and aspire to be and let them know there's a chance for anybody from any background.

When I signed with WWE, a lot of people, even close friends, told me that this place was going to chew me up and spit me out, just because of the way my personality is. It's been an adjustment for me as a human being.

It's just so weird how you get so used to what we do: I could go in there and wrestle main events on Live Events for 25-30 minutes, but I couldn't really get the sheets off me in bed. It's weird how that works. Your body just adapts.