Pinyapplesuckas
He's A Good Man
Leaders of the new school: Sami Zayn, Hideo Itami, Adrian Neville, Fergal Devitt and Kevin Steen talk to WWE.com about their generation
Very Long Read
Some 3,000-plus favorite tweets and retweets later and the buzz surrounding “Zayn’s generation” — let’s call it WWE’s new New Generation — has only intensified. As WWE fans await the in-ring debuts of international Superstars Fergal Devitt and the wrestler formerly known as KENTA, Hideo Itami, and independent wrestling demigod Kevin Steen, WWE.com sat down with the NXT Five inside the place they call home — the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla. — for a roundtable discussion to learn about their connections to each other inside the ring and out.
Read on as they discuss their struggles journeying to WWE, why WWE has always been the final destination, and the heavy duty that comes with being the new guard.
WWE.COM: We’ve gathered you all here at 9 a.m. on a Thursday because of a tweet Sami Zayn sent.
SAMI ZAYN: I heard it from these guys yesterday, I’ll tell you. Today is our only day off.
ADRIAN NEVILLE: It’s not a day off. We’ve got a Cocoa Beach show tonight.
Watch WWE NXT on WWE Network
ZAYN: Yeah, we do have a show later this evening, but it was a chance to sleep in. It’s really not a big deal, but, of course, these guys are going to rib me a little bit about it.
KEVIN STEEN: I don’t care. I’m happy to do this.
ZAYN: Well aren’t you perfect?
WWE.COM: The tweet really seemed to capture a moment in time, though. What was going through your mind when you sent it?
ZAYN: It’s just crazy to think where we all were a few years ago and where we are now. The other guys I tagged are guys we all crossed paths with for years all over the world on various small, independent shows. We thought we were doing something special at the time, but you don’t know if it’s going to pay off. Now that we’re all here under the WWE umbrella, it kind of validates all that.
WWE.COM: Was getting here always the goal?
NEVILLE: I didn’t really have an interest in getting signed by WWE earlier in my career. If I did have the opportunity to come here, I wanted it to be later when I was a more traveled, well-versed performer. Honestly, with my body type and my style, I never really expected to be here. The fact that I’m here alongside these guys is kind of mind-blowing.
Full WWE NXT coverage on WWE.com
ZAYN: When we were young, we all looked up to the Jerichos and the Guerreros and the Malenkos and all these world-traveled guys who started where they were from and then made a name in Europe, then went to Mexico, then went to Japan, then went to ECW, then WCW and then they ended their careers here in WWE. Those are the guys that I looked at like, “That’s what I want to be.” Now, we’re that generation — we’re the Guerreros, we’re the Malenkos. It’s not a coincidence at all.
STEEN: I actually had a bit of a different mentality. I remember talking with Zayn about WWE, it must have been 2003, and I told him it wasn’t a dream for me — it was the goal. I appreciate all the chances I got to wrestle all over the world and I’m really proud to have wrestled in Japan and Australia and Italy. But it was never a necessity for me, because in my head, I thought, “When I get to WWE, I’ll travel with them and see all those places.” It was never something I felt I needed to do, but now that I’ve lived through those experiences, I realize how important it was in getting here.
WWE.COM: Was it the same for you, Fergal? You were a top star in Japan’s biggest promotion before you signed with WWE.
FERGAL DEVITT: I’d been doing it for about six or seven years when I ended up in New Japan. I was really just a boy and I became a man in New Japan in eight years. It came to a point where I could stay the rest of my career there and have the security of a job or I could step into the great unknown that is WWE and challenge myself. And that’s what I decided to do.
Read more about Devitt signing with WWE
WWE.COM: You raise an interesting point, because getting to NXT is just the beginning of the journey, isn’t it? It’s not like you’re guaranteed a spot on the main roster.
NEVILLE: Honestly, it’s a huge risk, because we’ve got these reputations outside here and I know a lot of us made very comfortable livings outside here. To give up all that on what is essentially a flip of a coin, because a lot of decisions aren’t really in our hands as far as this place is concerned. One thing I liked about coming up is the ball was very much in our hands. Our success was based on what we did. That is the case to a certain degree here, but at the same time …
ZAYN: There are more external forces now.
NEVILLE: Exactly. So it’s definitely a roll of the dice in a certain respect.
STEEN: It is, but there’s no way you can’t roll the dice. When the offer was presented, there was no, “I really got to think about this.” I mean, I did, because I have two kids and I have a wife. It involved them moving from Canada to Florida; it involved my son changing schools, leaving his friends behind; it involved us getting away from our families. Our choice to come here impacted a lot of people, but …
Read WWE.com's first Q&A with Kevin Steen
NEVILLE: You were coming either way.
STEEN: I was coming. And they were coming, too. My son’s 7 years old. He watches WWE and he loves John Cena. I’d take him to a WWE show in Montreal and he’d be like, “How come you’re not wrestling?” “Uh, I don’t wrestle for WWE. You get to come see me in front of 200 people.” (Laughter.) Then one day I told him, “Hey, I think I can wrestle for WWE. You want me to?” He’s like, “Yeah!” So I said, “OK, but it means moving, changing schools and not seeing Grandpa every day.” His question was, “Are you going to wrestle John Cena?” (Laughter.)
ZAYN: That was the negotiation process.
STEEN: So for me, there was no choice in the matter. They gave me an option. They said, “Well, we’d like you to come. Let us know.” It was already a yes as soon as they asked.
ZAYN: We’ve all got at least a decade to a decade and a half invested here. And without blowing smoke, everyone here is really good, obviously. Before we all got here, we were kind of "the guys." I firmly believe we once again will be "the guys," but we had to hit that reset button and roll the dice and start from scratch. But like Kevin said, what are you gonna do? Not take the chance? I didn’t even read my contract!
STEEN: Yeah, same here.
ZAYN: I didn’t even read it, because what was I gonna do? “Oh, sorry, article seven, paragraph two doesn’t work for me.” You had to come here. But [Hideo Itami] is the best example of hitting that reset button. You want to talk about a guy who was firmly established in one place and really had nothing to prove to anyone. He’s the man in Japan. This is a huge reset button for him to come here, and it’s on a total gamble.
Watch Hideo Itami's introduction to the WWE NXT Universe
NEVILLE: Different culture.
ZAYN: Different language, different life, everything. He’s got a family. It’s a really huge thing for him in my opinion. How long have you been wrestling?
HIDEO ITAMI: Fourteen years.
NEVILLE: WWE was a big risk for you, right?
ITAMI: Yeah. Everything changed.
ZAYN: Why did you choose to leave Japan for WWE?
ITAMI: I wanted more. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to prove to myself.
STEEN: Did you always want to come to WWE? Because things are different in Japan.
ITAMI: When I started, I didn’t think about WWE, but my dream became bigger and bigger.
STEEN: Maybe you also came to WWE to take back the Go to Sleep. (Laughter.)
ITAMI: I hope! (Laughter.)
WWE.COM: Everyone here comes from a different part of the globe. Is it important for each of you to represent your countries in WWE?
ZAYN: The guys at this table are reinventing what it means to be international, because guys from Quebec used to be The Quebecers or they used to be La Resistance. Adrian Neville happens to be British, but he’s not coming out with a giant British flag. He’s not Mr. Britain.
NEVILLE: I’m like a luchador, a GeordieWatch bullet-time photography of Adrian Neville's breathtaking Red Arrow
ZAYN: I don’t know what’s going to become of [Itami’s] career, but I highly doubt you’ll see him with a headband, hitting a gong or anything like that. We’re reinventing what it means to be from these countries. We’re not stereotypes. We’re not here to epitomize your preconceived notions about Canada or Ireland or Japan or England. We just happen to be from these places and we happen to be really good.
STEEN: French is my first language. I didn’t speak English until I was 12 or 13. I started picking it up, because I was watching WWE. That’s how I learned how to speak English.
ZAYN: Jim Ross taught him how to speak English.
STEEN: I was using, “coming down the aisle” and “stomping a mudhole.”
ZAYN: He thought they were regular expressions! “That was a real slobberknocker!”
STEEN: Even though I have an English name, I’m French and I’m proud of that, but it’s really important for me not to be labeled as the French Canadian guy. If I’m ever on a show at the Bell Centre, you can bet I’ll speak French as much as I can, but I don’t want the fact that I’m from Quebec to define me.
ZAYN: It’s not our calling card. And I do feel like wrestling’s evolved past that. I certainly felt it when I did the tours to the Middle Eastern countries. Being an Arab and still being able to come out there and be myself and not have to wrap a turban around my head, that’s really cool. And that’s going to be part of the legacy of this generation of guys: We’re going to smash down many boundaries and preconceived notions.
Very Long Read
Some 3,000-plus favorite tweets and retweets later and the buzz surrounding “Zayn’s generation” — let’s call it WWE’s new New Generation — has only intensified. As WWE fans await the in-ring debuts of international Superstars Fergal Devitt and the wrestler formerly known as KENTA, Hideo Itami, and independent wrestling demigod Kevin Steen, WWE.com sat down with the NXT Five inside the place they call home — the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla. — for a roundtable discussion to learn about their connections to each other inside the ring and out.
Read on as they discuss their struggles journeying to WWE, why WWE has always been the final destination, and the heavy duty that comes with being the new guard.
WWE.COM: We’ve gathered you all here at 9 a.m. on a Thursday because of a tweet Sami Zayn sent.
SAMI ZAYN: I heard it from these guys yesterday, I’ll tell you. Today is our only day off.
ADRIAN NEVILLE: It’s not a day off. We’ve got a Cocoa Beach show tonight.
Watch WWE NXT on WWE Network
ZAYN: Yeah, we do have a show later this evening, but it was a chance to sleep in. It’s really not a big deal, but, of course, these guys are going to rib me a little bit about it.
KEVIN STEEN: I don’t care. I’m happy to do this.
ZAYN: Well aren’t you perfect?
ZAYN: It’s just crazy to think where we all were a few years ago and where we are now. The other guys I tagged are guys we all crossed paths with for years all over the world on various small, independent shows. We thought we were doing something special at the time, but you don’t know if it’s going to pay off. Now that we’re all here under the WWE umbrella, it kind of validates all that.
WWE.COM: Was getting here always the goal?
NEVILLE: I didn’t really have an interest in getting signed by WWE earlier in my career. If I did have the opportunity to come here, I wanted it to be later when I was a more traveled, well-versed performer. Honestly, with my body type and my style, I never really expected to be here. The fact that I’m here alongside these guys is kind of mind-blowing.
Full WWE NXT coverage on WWE.com
ZAYN: When we were young, we all looked up to the Jerichos and the Guerreros and the Malenkos and all these world-traveled guys who started where they were from and then made a name in Europe, then went to Mexico, then went to Japan, then went to ECW, then WCW and then they ended their careers here in WWE. Those are the guys that I looked at like, “That’s what I want to be.” Now, we’re that generation — we’re the Guerreros, we’re the Malenkos. It’s not a coincidence at all.
STEEN: I actually had a bit of a different mentality. I remember talking with Zayn about WWE, it must have been 2003, and I told him it wasn’t a dream for me — it was the goal. I appreciate all the chances I got to wrestle all over the world and I’m really proud to have wrestled in Japan and Australia and Italy. But it was never a necessity for me, because in my head, I thought, “When I get to WWE, I’ll travel with them and see all those places.” It was never something I felt I needed to do, but now that I’ve lived through those experiences, I realize how important it was in getting here.
WWE.COM: Was it the same for you, Fergal? You were a top star in Japan’s biggest promotion before you signed with WWE.
FERGAL DEVITT: I’d been doing it for about six or seven years when I ended up in New Japan. I was really just a boy and I became a man in New Japan in eight years. It came to a point where I could stay the rest of my career there and have the security of a job or I could step into the great unknown that is WWE and challenge myself. And that’s what I decided to do.
Read more about Devitt signing with WWE
WWE.COM: You raise an interesting point, because getting to NXT is just the beginning of the journey, isn’t it? It’s not like you’re guaranteed a spot on the main roster.
NEVILLE: Honestly, it’s a huge risk, because we’ve got these reputations outside here and I know a lot of us made very comfortable livings outside here. To give up all that on what is essentially a flip of a coin, because a lot of decisions aren’t really in our hands as far as this place is concerned. One thing I liked about coming up is the ball was very much in our hands. Our success was based on what we did. That is the case to a certain degree here, but at the same time …
ZAYN: There are more external forces now.
NEVILLE: Exactly. So it’s definitely a roll of the dice in a certain respect.
STEEN: It is, but there’s no way you can’t roll the dice. When the offer was presented, there was no, “I really got to think about this.” I mean, I did, because I have two kids and I have a wife. It involved them moving from Canada to Florida; it involved my son changing schools, leaving his friends behind; it involved us getting away from our families. Our choice to come here impacted a lot of people, but …
Read WWE.com's first Q&A with Kevin Steen
NEVILLE: You were coming either way.
STEEN: I was coming. And they were coming, too. My son’s 7 years old. He watches WWE and he loves John Cena. I’d take him to a WWE show in Montreal and he’d be like, “How come you’re not wrestling?” “Uh, I don’t wrestle for WWE. You get to come see me in front of 200 people.” (Laughter.) Then one day I told him, “Hey, I think I can wrestle for WWE. You want me to?” He’s like, “Yeah!” So I said, “OK, but it means moving, changing schools and not seeing Grandpa every day.” His question was, “Are you going to wrestle John Cena?” (Laughter.)
ZAYN: That was the negotiation process.
STEEN: So for me, there was no choice in the matter. They gave me an option. They said, “Well, we’d like you to come. Let us know.” It was already a yes as soon as they asked.
ZAYN: We’ve all got at least a decade to a decade and a half invested here. And without blowing smoke, everyone here is really good, obviously. Before we all got here, we were kind of "the guys." I firmly believe we once again will be "the guys," but we had to hit that reset button and roll the dice and start from scratch. But like Kevin said, what are you gonna do? Not take the chance? I didn’t even read my contract!
STEEN: Yeah, same here.
ZAYN: I didn’t even read it, because what was I gonna do? “Oh, sorry, article seven, paragraph two doesn’t work for me.” You had to come here. But [Hideo Itami] is the best example of hitting that reset button. You want to talk about a guy who was firmly established in one place and really had nothing to prove to anyone. He’s the man in Japan. This is a huge reset button for him to come here, and it’s on a total gamble.
Watch Hideo Itami's introduction to the WWE NXT Universe
NEVILLE: Different culture.
ZAYN: Different language, different life, everything. He’s got a family. It’s a really huge thing for him in my opinion. How long have you been wrestling?
HIDEO ITAMI: Fourteen years.
NEVILLE: WWE was a big risk for you, right?
ITAMI: Yeah. Everything changed.
ZAYN: Why did you choose to leave Japan for WWE?
ITAMI: I wanted more. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to prove to myself.
STEEN: Did you always want to come to WWE? Because things are different in Japan.
ITAMI: When I started, I didn’t think about WWE, but my dream became bigger and bigger.
STEEN: Maybe you also came to WWE to take back the Go to Sleep. (Laughter.)
ITAMI: I hope! (Laughter.)
WWE.COM: Everyone here comes from a different part of the globe. Is it important for each of you to represent your countries in WWE?
ZAYN: The guys at this table are reinventing what it means to be international, because guys from Quebec used to be The Quebecers or they used to be La Resistance. Adrian Neville happens to be British, but he’s not coming out with a giant British flag. He’s not Mr. Britain.
NEVILLE: I’m like a luchador, a GeordieWatch bullet-time photography of Adrian Neville's breathtaking Red Arrow
ZAYN: I don’t know what’s going to become of [Itami’s] career, but I highly doubt you’ll see him with a headband, hitting a gong or anything like that. We’re reinventing what it means to be from these countries. We’re not stereotypes. We’re not here to epitomize your preconceived notions about Canada or Ireland or Japan or England. We just happen to be from these places and we happen to be really good.
STEEN: French is my first language. I didn’t speak English until I was 12 or 13. I started picking it up, because I was watching WWE. That’s how I learned how to speak English.
ZAYN: Jim Ross taught him how to speak English.
STEEN: I was using, “coming down the aisle” and “stomping a mudhole.”
ZAYN: He thought they were regular expressions! “That was a real slobberknocker!”
STEEN: Even though I have an English name, I’m French and I’m proud of that, but it’s really important for me not to be labeled as the French Canadian guy. If I’m ever on a show at the Bell Centre, you can bet I’ll speak French as much as I can, but I don’t want the fact that I’m from Quebec to define me.
ZAYN: It’s not our calling card. And I do feel like wrestling’s evolved past that. I certainly felt it when I did the tours to the Middle Eastern countries. Being an Arab and still being able to come out there and be myself and not have to wrap a turban around my head, that’s really cool. And that’s going to be part of the legacy of this generation of guys: We’re going to smash down many boundaries and preconceived notions.