Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura were recent guests on Mike Jones’ podcast for DC 101.
During the interview, Jones asked Zayn, who is of Arab descent, about the recent piece Adeel Alam, better known by his WWE stage name Mustafa Ali, did for CBS Evening News about changing perceptions in and out of the wrestling ring.
In the piece, Ali explains that Arabs and Muslims have always been cast as the bad guys and that he was as well when he first started; and the challenges he faced in convincing people that a Muslim “good guy” could work.
On breaking stereotypes in wrestling, Zayn was upbeat about it stating that wrestling is moving away from this.
“For me personally, it’s one of the things I love about this generation,” Zayn said. “Shinsuke’s [Nakamura] gimmick doesn’t revolve around him being Japanese.
“Like me, being Arab, I’m not coming out with a turban or acting the way the Iron Sheik acted. I’m a performer who happens to be Arabian.
“Finn Balor, he’s an Irishman and it’s not like he comes out with a box of lucky charms or waving an Irish flag talking with a funny accent to be Irish. It’s just a lot more rooted in reality of who we actually are and not playing this caricature or this stereotype of our background.
“So, I applaud Mustafa Ali for that for trying to break that. It’s something I have been interested in as well.”
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