"So to hell with them" - 49-year-old WWE star discloses the work put in to produce Sami Zayn's memorable match

Sami Zayn went from wrestling a celebrity on The Grandest Stage of Them All to closing out this year's extravaganza by hoisting the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. He is also presently one of the featured stars on Monday nights.

Shane Helms recently sat down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide variety of topics. As a producer, the former recalled all the effort he put in to carve out a decent WrestleMania contest between Sami Zayn and Johnny Knoxville in 2022.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Helms stated that he knew beforehand there would be people that aren't fans of the comedy aspects of the match. However, the veteran felt good knowing that the reception was favorable despite the possibility of such a bout going wrong:

"Yeah, and I knew going in there's gonna be some people they're gonna hate this. And so I just completely ignored those people from day one. I was like, there's a certain portion of the audience that is not gonna like this no matter what. So to hell with them. I'm aiming for you know, the audience that I thought would like it. I know being in Gorilla for that your own headset. Just the laughter in Gorilla is popping as loud as anything I've ever heard. It's the most pops I've ever seen in Gorilla." [H/T: Insight]

Despite the loss, it didn't hurt Zayn in the long run, as he later joined Roman Reigns and his clan on WWE SmackDown, which led to everything that transpired on the Road to WrestleMania 39.

Check out which iconic match at the Showcase of Immortals Sami Zayn compared with his own world title contest earlier this year against The Tribal Chief.

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Shane Helms responds to what the role of a WWE producer is

While he withheld information, Shane Helms had a few words to say about his role backstage as a producer in WWE. These days, the veteran focuses more on behind-the-scenes work rather than stepping into the ring. He stated:

"And I'm not going to fully tell. You can't have all my secrets. You know, we're kind of the go-between between creative and the talent we get with the talent. We get the assignment from creative to what we want to do for our segments that night. We get with the talents and between us and the talent, we go out and try to put out the segment that they've given us to the best we can."

You can read about WWE fans wildly dismissing the idea of Sami Zayn dethroning a top champion here.