Sami Zayn is gearing up for life after WWE.
As noted, the man who will be challenging GUNTHER for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XL this weekend, has announced his stand-up comedy debut with “Sami Zayn & Friends” scheduled for the Netflix Is A Joke Festival in May.
Apparently that’s just the beginning.
During an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Show to promote his title tilt with “The Ring General” on “The Grandest Stage of Them All,” Zayn revealed that he has hired a manager and an agent specifically for projects outside of WWE.
“I recently got a manager and an agent for outside WWE type stuff,” Zayn said during the appearance. “Trying to dip my toes into that world a little bit.”
Zayn would go on to reflect on some of his on-air moments in WWE that showed his range, such as his WrestleMania showdown with Johnny Knoxville, his work with The Bloodline and his segments with Austin Theory and the golden egg.
He claimed the Theory golden egg segments specifically opened some eyes in the company.
“It opened their eyes to a different side of it,” he said. “The character side of it. Enough people started telling me, ‘You’re a pretty good actor.’ ‘Yeah? Really? I always thought I’d be alright.’ ‘You’re funny.’ ‘Really? I always wanted to be a comic when I was a kid. You don’t say.’ It made me feel good. I always thought I had a knack for it and all of a sudden, I got to flex those chops a little on WWE. I thought, ‘Let’s see what’s going on outside of WWE TV.’ The mentality within the company, in regards to how they approach talent wanting to do outside stuff, has really changed as of late, for the better. We’ll see.”
Zayn then spoke about “weird ideas” he has for a “Sami Zayn And Friends” variety-show.
Zayn said his idea for “Sami Zayn & Friends” is to be more of a variety show and he has a lot of “weird ideas.”
“To be honest, I agreed to the show and…I had no show,” he said. “‘Hey, do you want to do this thing?’ ‘Yup.’ ‘Okay, we’re going to announce it.’ Uh oh. I better come up with a show.”
Check out the complete interview at Apple.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.