10 Things We Learned From Sami Zayn On Stone Cold’s Broken Skull Sessions Podcast

7. Why Everyone Should Try A Mask

Steve Austin Sami Zayn Broken Skull Sessions
By Tabercil (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Zayn says there’s a unique “freedom” to working under the hood, and he reckons more wrestlers should give masks a try to see if they like them. When Austin asked why, Sami explained that you can act a different way when wearing one.

That's what he did as El Generico.

What was supposed to be a one night deal turned into a famous run for the future WWE man. The key to his success was that he became very over-the-top and sold attacks with his entire body. Meanwhile, underneath the mask, Sami would still contort his face and sell, sell, sell.

Nonetheless, it surprised a lot of people in the biz that Zayn had excellent facial expressions when WWE signed him and removed the mask. Nobody had been expecting that at all, but El Generico had been training for such a moment; he was prepared to sell his ass off and show as wide a range of emotions as he possibly could...

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.