The career of Sami Zayn has seen lots of changes in recent months, but one thing that has remained with him is his finishing move. The Helluva Kick, a running Yakuza Kick with his opponent prone in the turnbuckle, earned its name through a happenstance of mispronunciation, WCW magazine, Denny’s and one of AEW’s lead commentators.
Ahead of his main event match with Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber last month, Sami shared how his version of the Yakuza Kick earned its name, for the first time ever, with Love Wrestling.
“If you want the actual history here, I don’t know if I’ve ever actually told it in an interview.” Sami begins. “When I was a kid, I had a WCW magazine, and I was reading some match results. It said Chris Jericho defeated Syxx – or maybe it was the other way around – with a hell of a kick.
It was written “helluva” like that, and I thought it was a Helluva kick, so I thought it was a type of kick.”
It wasn’t until he shared this anecdote with a peer that Sami’s Yakuza Kick would earn the variant name. “So I told this story to Excalibur, who now does commentary on AEW every Wednesday. I told this story to him at dinner one time at Denny’s after a PWG show, then we started calling the running Yakuza kick in the corner that I would do at the time, we started calling it a Helluva kick. So that’s actually the real history of that name.”
Sami also shared his thoughts on returning to Montréal, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me, and Sami For Syria. Tune in to the full video interview below, and please give a h/t to Zak Ralph for the transcription.
Check more of Love Wrestling’s interviews from the Elimination Chamber junket, including conversations with Natalya, on YouTube
