Sami Zayn opens up on how his bitter rival worked on "saving" their WrestleMania encounter

WWE star Sami Zayn recently spoke about how Johnny Knoxville saved their WrestleMania encounter.

Zayn and Knoxville had a bitter rivalry leading up to the Show of Shows earlier this year. After a feud that involved Sami being attacked by a cattle prod, kicked out of a red carpet Hollywood premiere and having his phone number made available to the public, he faced the Jackass Forever star at WrestleMania 38 in an Anything Goes match.

In an exclusive interview with Metro, Zayn detailed that Johnny was quick to save the finish of the match when the giant mousetrap malfunctioned during their encounter.

"‘If there’s anything you’re gonna give him a lot of credit for, it’s saving that finish. Even a very seasoned performer - if that had even gone on one or two seconds longer, it would’ve killed the whole finish and killed the whole match," he said.

Sami also mentioned that the biggest part of what made their WrestleMania encounter a success was that Johnny did not pretend to be a WWE Superstar. He explained that fans could clearly see that Knoxville was a Hollywood star trying to trick his way to a victory at the Grandest Stage of them All.

"The distinction in this one was clear. This guy is a non-wrestler, a non-athlete, and has tricks up his sleeve. Some credit to him - reluctantly - is due because he didn’t try to get in there and get out of his comfort zone too much in a way that he just wouldn’t be able to keep up." (H/T Metro)

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Sami Zayn will be in action this week on SmackDown

The December 30 episode of SmackDown this week will be a monumental one as it will feature John Cena's first match of the year and is it also the last edition of the blue brand in 2022.

The Cenation Leader will team up with Kevin Owens to take on the undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and "Honorary Uce" Sami Zayn in a tag team affair.

The match was made official when Reigns asked WWE official Adam Pearce to set up a tag team match so that he could address "the KO problem."

Do you think Sami Zayn will once again prove to be the point of difference in this match? Let us know in the comments section below.