Sami Zayn was a recent guest on The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast and spoke about WWE moving beyond stereotypical gimmicks, his successful Sami for Syria campaign, his love of ska music a more.

During the interview, Sam Roberts suggested that Zayn’s WWE character might come off to some fans as “annoying.” Zayn defended himself, saying that his supporters actually find him charming and endearing.

“I hate the word ‘annoying!’ I don’t know, ‘enthusiastic’ perhaps. Well, not to get into the whole thing, but it’s all about the interaction with these other characters, so if you’re going to roll your eyes at me, I’m annoying, but if you find it, like, charming, which it could be, and because it’s aspects of my real life personality, and there have been times, I’m sure, that I’ve annoyed people. And there have been some times, I’m sure, that I’ve charmed some people.”

He continued, “If you’re going to sell it, so to speak, as endearing, it’s endearing. But if you’re going to have guys rolling their eyes, then, ‘ugh, this guy.’ Then, it’s whatever you make it to be.”

Whether you love or hate the character, Zayn admitted that his character is in a “strange position” and state of flux. One week he’s the lovable underdog going up against Braun Strowman, the next week he’s channeling Seinfeld’s ‘George Costanza.’

“The character is in flux, I would say definitely because there [are] aspects of the character, and I don’t want to drone on and on about this too much, but there [are] aspects of the character that’s about always standing your ground, and fighting the good fight, and always trying to do things the right way, like an upstanding guy.”

“And again, aspects of that were more in display, let’s say, when I was doing a program with Braun Strowman, this insurmountable oppressor, so I was, like, standing up to an oppressor and standing up to tyranny. Right. And then, like a week later, I’m George Costanza, so the character is in this strange sort of position at the moment. Yeah, and exactly, I think there is a balance and I think the balance, the middle ground, is me, the real me, because I am both of those.”