WWE: Sami Zayn on His Career Goal to Win WWE World Title Before He Retires, A&E WWE Ratings, More News

May 15, 2024

Sami Zayn Comments on His Career Goal to Win WWE World Title Before He Retires

The Daily Mail held a recent interview with Sami Zayn. One of the topics discussed included Zayn’s thoughts about his current career goal of wanting to win the WWE World Championship before he retires from wrestling and how that goal may have been more likely to happen in the Vince McMahon era than the current Triple H era of WWE creative.

“Here’s how I see it. I think Hunter sees me differently from how Vince saw me, especially as a good guy. I think Vince saw me much more as a bad guy, for a number of reasons. He saw my irksome qualities that he thought lent itself to being an irksome character. Having said that, I think things were a lot more unpredictable because of the nature of Vince’s week to week, kind of approach, that sometimes the marble would just fall in the right hole, and now you’re champion, whereas with Hunter, I think it’s much more he has longer-term vision, and if you’re not part of that vision, then the chances of breaking into that vision are much, much slimmer.
It’s kind of a double edged sword. He might see me in a way that lends itself more to being in that mix and possibly winning it. But on the other hand, I could have just slipped on a banana peel and won the world title. I just do my best. I just give the best performances I can give, I try to perform with as much emotion as possible and tell the best stories I can tell, and I hope that that eventually gets me there. I’d like to win the world title once before I call it a day, there’s no question, but I don’t live and die by that. It’d be great, and I really appreciate people saying they’d love to see it. I’d love to see it too, and I hope it happens, but if it doesn’t, thank you just the same, because it’s been amazing.”

A&E WWE Programming Ratings – May 12, 2024

This past Sunday’s WWE Rivals first doubleheader episode drew 265,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.10 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a #33 key demographic ranking. This was down compared to last week’s 272,000 viewers but up compared to last week’s 0.08 rating. This episode focused on the famous Triple H vs. Seth Rollins rivalry.

This past Sunday’s WWE Rivals second doubleheader episode drew 338,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.12 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a #26 key demographic ranking. This was up compared to first doubleheader episode’s 272,000 viewers and 0.10 rating. This episode focused on the famous Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes rivalry.

Source: SpoilerTV

WWE News & Notes

Tuesday’s NXT show featured former SmackDown brand ring announcer Mike Rome making his official return to WWE’s NXT brand as their new ring announcer. Rome replaced former NXT ring announcer Alicia Taylor who made her official main roster call-up this past Friday as SmackDown’s new ring announcer.

Deadline reported that their sources stated that Charlotte Flair recently joined the cast of an upcoming indie horror/thriller film titled You Lose You Die. It was reported that Flair will be staring in this film by Averted Vision Pictures and pre-production for it is currently underway.

As noted before, The Viking Raiders’ Erik has been out of action for WWE since this past September due to a neck injury and neck fusion surgery. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Erik has been at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for this week.

As noted before, WWE filed an injunction against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this past February to prevent Paxton from releasing information following a Texas Public Information Act request regarding WWE’s bidding contract for the 2023 Royal Rumble event in San Antonio. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the Texas Attorney General’s office has yet to file an official response despite being served on March 1st. Thurston reported that WWE filed a motion on April 9th requesting for a default judgement to be issued to them. Thurston also reported that a court hearing is currently scheduled to take place involving WWE’s attorney and Judge Jan Soifer about the default judgement in WWE’s lawsuit against the Texas Attorney General.

As noted before, a lawsuit against WWE was filed this past March by a person named Richard Bryant claiming that he had suffered hearing injuries over “negligence and carelessness” caused by WWE’s handling of pyrotechnics at a SmackDown show he attended in Orlando, Florida in July of 2022. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE had recently requested and was granted an extension from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut to officially respond to Bryant’s lawsuit based on recent court records. Johnson reported that WWE will now have until June 3rd to officially respond to the lawsuit.

Comcast recently announced that they are currently planning to launch a new streaming bundle called StreamSaver featuring Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV+. While no date was given for the launch of this new bundle, the New York Times reported that it is currently expected to launch later this month.

This past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Greenville, South Carolina featured former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia making a surprise appearance. Garcia recently reflected on Twitter about her appearance and the support shown by fans towards her. Garcia stated “Sooooo it’s been a minute since I have been on here but after last night, I had to return to say…thank you!! 🙏🏼😊 What a welcome you gave me! Felt amazing. I love you!! ❤️“

In a recent interview with WWE, Rey Mysterio stated that he had “pulled some strings” to make sure Carlito was drafted along with the LWO despite Carlito’s recent attack on Dragon Lee and betrayal of the group. Mysterio stated “The thing that hurts the most about this is that we trusted Carlito. Not just me. All of LWO did, and he betrayed us. He attacked Dragon Lee. Dragon Lee is one of the homies, and he earned his opportunity at WrestleMania. The same way Carlito and I earned opportunities earlier in our careers. But he must have forgot about that. Cathy, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. I did some work behind the scenes and pulled a couple strings to make sure that Carlito got drafted to Raw with the LWO. It’s time for Carlito to pay for what he did to us. Carlito, it’s time for you to man up and face me in the ring.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE announced four matches for the card of next week’s NXT show on May 21st at their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida:

NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder Qualifying match – Brinley Reece vs. Jaida Parker
NXT North American Championship #1 Contender Triple Threat match – Ivar vs. Wes Lee vs. Josh Briggs
Natayla & Karmen Petrovic vs. Shayna Baszler & Lola Vice
Fallon Henley vs. Thea Hail

WWE also recently announced three new matches for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on May 20th in Greensboro, North Carolina:

2024 King of the Ring Tournament Semifinal Round match – Gunther vs. Jey Uso
2024 Queen of the Ring Tournament Semifinal round match – IYO SKY vs. Lyra Valkryia
Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable