Sami Zayn says reaction to WWE Raw gauntlet win was ‘a little deflating’

Sami Zayn says the reaction to him winning the number one contender's gauntlet on the March 11 WWE Raw was "a little deflating." 

Zayn defeated Chad Gable in the final fall of the gauntlet to earn an Intercontinental title match against Gunther at WrestleMania. Some fans expected Gable to win given he'd been cutting promos leading up to the match about his loss to Gunther in September causing his young daughter to cry.

Booker T mentioned on his Hall of Fame podcast recently that Zayn had been upset by the response to his win. However, Zayn clarified during a recent interview with the Superstar Crossover Podcast that his comments "seem like a bigger deal" than they were but he was still a little deflated by the reaction.  

Zayn was asked about Booker's comments and responded:

I was a little surprised to read that (laughs) cause I basically bumped into Booker on the plane. We were just sitting next to each other. We were just talking so it was pretty weird to see it on the internet (laughs).

All this to say, I was very happy with the performance because he was talking about the performance itself, the match itself. And I was like, ‘I was very pleased with the match, it’s just unfortunate that it felt like the reaction to the win itself was a little split, if not a little more skewed toward Chad even' because we did such a great job of building Chad and he's done a great job of building himself.

I felt like this was an interesting story because it splits the emotional investment in two. So you're only getting 50 percent of the pie, right? So that's just an interesting dynamic. It is interesting because it makes it more compelling but as a guy whose job is to rally the entire audience behind him, which is what I sometimes feel like my job is as a good guy, I was a little let down that I felt like I couldn't get the entire audience to rally behind me….that’s not even entirely true. During the match itself, it (felt) like they were very happy and invested in the whole thing but the online backlash or the day after, just with people feeling a little disappointed for for Chad, which is very understandable, just was a little deflating.

But again this is just something I was kind of articulating to (Booker T) as two veterans kind of shooting the breeze on the plane so I think maybe once it gets out online it seems like a bigger deal than it is. 

Zayn was defeated by Bronson Reed on WWE Raw this week. Later on in the show, Gable was seen telling Zayn that if he wants to beat Gunther at WrestleMania, he needs a different approach. Gable also told Zayn that he can help.