Sami Zayn‘s feud with Jackass Forever star Johnny Knoxville recently made headlines around the entertainment world when the latter publicly shared the former WWE Intercontinental Champion’s phone number. Knoxville put the digits on a plane banner and had it flown over Los Angeles, prompting countless people to inundate Zayn with calls and text. It has been easy to assume that the WWE SmackDown standout used a fake number or some sort as part of the storyline, but as it turns out, “The Master Strategist” did no such thing.
In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Zayn was directly asked whether Knoxville revealed his actual phone number, and he answered in the affirmative and noted that he was blown away by the response.
“Yeah,” said Zayn. “I couldn’t predict how many calls and texts I was gonna get. It’s in the hundreds of thousands really. It really exceeded my expectations.”
Likewise, Zayn emphasized that his phone was actually blowing up non-stop, as people incesstantly called and texted him. He pointed out that the flow has started to slow down before he revealed that he actually answered some of the calls, and he was happy to excite the fans in doing so.
“It’s still going on,” said Zayn. “These is never a moment where if I walk by my phone it’s not ringing or buzzing or there’s a call. Every second. It only started to slow down the last day or two. When I say slow down, it might be a minute or two between calls. But for that first week it was literally incessant and I have guys in the locker room who will back me up on this. It was pretty crazy.
“The one silver lining is I answered some of those calls and in some cases it really brightened people’s day because I don’t think they expected it to be a real number or me answering it. Some of the fans were very, very excited. Even though I’m bad [on TV] it did put a little spark of joy in me seeing some of the people who were genuinely moved or shocked by me answering the call.”
Zayn’s rivalry with Knoxville will reach a new height at WWE WrestleMania 38, as the two stars will clash in an Anything Goes Match.
