During an appearance on the New Day’s podcast, Sami Zayn talked about having a negative backstage reputation in the past:
“WWE made me aware of some of my own actions. I came in and the big mantra was perception is reality. Even though I was 28 when I got there, I don’t think I was a fully mature person in some ways. I don’t think I was fully aware that I had my interpretation of what I thought I was and then there were a lot of people who didn’t agree with that. I see myself one way and they are seeing me in a very different way. It made me a lot more aware of how my actions are perceived by people who are not me. For example, what I might perceive as fun loving, let’s have some fun chat on the bus might be perceived as annoying. I always only looked through my own lens, but being around these people with all these different points of view starts making you look at yourself through their lens. On the independents, it’s a very different mindset. We are all just buddies. I would not call it a competitive environment. Everybody wanted to have great matches, but it’s not like you viewed the other person as a threat. When you come to WWE, especially back then, it’s different now, but it fostered a culture that the person sitting next to you was not your friend. He was a threat to your success. It was the culture at the time. I remember struggling with that.”
