Johnny Knoxville will face Sami Zayn in an Anything Goes match at WrestleMania 38. Celebrities appearing on wrestling shows are seldom taken seriously by fans, and Knoxville wants to avoid that. The Jackass co-creator wants fans to know that he\'s actually serious about wrestling and respects it.
Speaking to Bleacher Report, Knoxville talked about this and said that he\'s greatful how wrestling fans have accepted him. He hopes fans can see legitimacy when it comes to him performing in the ring.
“I heard that the wrestling fans don’t react to all the celebrities and I’m just so grateful that they have accepted me. Maybe it has something to do with what I do for a living, as far as the stunts in Jackass are concerned. So, hopefully, there’s a legitimacy there with me being in the ring. But I don’t know. Hopefully, they know I’m committed to this and taking it very seriously; training a lot and talking s–t about Sami Zayn whenever I can. It’s grown to be my favorite pastime. Have you ever met him?”
In storyline, Knoxville has been after Sami Zayn for months, going as far as to costing Zayn the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Thanks to Knoxville\'s interference, Zayn would lose the title to Ricochet on the March 4 episode of SmackDown.
Sami Zayn, on the other hand, has said that he would like to test Knoxville\'s pain threshold but apart from that, he\'s not going to match him in the ring when it comes to wrestling. “On the one hand, yeah, I get to test that pain threshold of his, which he’s famous for. But on the other hand, if it’s straight up wrestling I don’t think anybody expects him to be able to hang with me.
“But the fact that it’s anything goes might open the door to some of the stuff he’s good at, which is the gags and the pranks and the weapons and whatever else it is….I think this whole thing has been a lot of fun, certainly for me.
“I hope it’s been fun for the audience as well, because we’ve gotten to build the match in some very unique and orthodox ways that you just don’t get to do with another WWE superstar. We’ve gotten to do some really outside the box, unconventional and fun things to build this match.”
Knoxville entered the 2022 Royal Rumble at number 9 and was eliminated by Zayn. His entry was confirmed on the prior episode of SmackDown which also started his feud with Zayn. After weeks of challenges and back and forths, Zayn challenged Knoxville to a match at WrestleMania 38 which Knoxville accepted.
Recently, Knoxville pranked Sami Zayn hard by putting his phone number on a plane. This resulted in Zayn receiving 20,000 text messages on his phone.
Johnny Knoxville and Sami Zayn will go against each other on night two of WrestleMania 38 on April 3.
