Sami Zayn’s WrestleMania 38 match against Johnny Knoxville remains one of the most unusual major attractions WWE has presented on its biggest stage. It was a celebrity match, a comedy spectacle, a Jackass showcase and, in Zayn’s view, still fundamentally a wrestling match. Looking back on the bout, Zayn explained why he felt confident it could connect with viewers while also admitting that confidence was accompanied by plenty of doubt before he went through the curtain.
The rivalry reached its conclusion at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, where Knoxville defeated Zayn in a match built around the stunt-heavy sensibilities of the Jackass world. The presentation included a bowling ball shot to Zayn’s groin, a giant hand that slapped him, help from Wee Man, and the infamous mousetrap table. Those moments gave the match an identity that could not have been mistaken for a standard WWE encounter.
For Zayn, that specific identity is exactly why the match worked. Knoxville was not brought in to imitate a traditional wrestler or suddenly perform a collection of conventional moves. Instead, the match embraced what the celebrity guest actually represented. His history of outrageous stunts became the equivalent of an offensive arsenal, and the wrestling framework gave those stunts structure, timing and stakes.
Zayn felt the concept had the potential to be “bulletproof”
Before a major match, performers often balance creative certainty with the anxiety that comes from knowing a live crowd ultimately decides whether an idea succeeds. Zayn said he experiences moments where he can picture a planned segment repeatedly and become convinced that the audience is about to see something they did not expect.
For more background on this topic, read Sami Zayn Explains the Deliberate, Gradual Evolution Behind His WWE Heel Turn.
“I’ll have these moments,” Zayn said. “Let’s say I’ve put something together and I’ve thought of it and I’ve reviewed it a bunch of times in my head, where I’m just like, oh my God, these people have no idea what’s about to hit them.”
Zayn quickly acknowledged that the description could sound overly confident, but his larger point was that some concepts feel especially strong on paper because they appeal beyond the usual wrestling audience. He believed the Knoxville match had that potential. Even someone who did not normally follow WWE, he felt, could understand the central premise and react to the escalating chaos.
“This is bulletproof, there’s no way this is not going to get them,” Zayn said of that feeling. “But then there is self-doubt.”
That self-doubt did not disappear simply because the concept was distinctive. Zayn said he continued to go back and forth mentally right up until the match began. On one side was the belief that the combination of wrestling drama and absurd Jackass-style violence would be accessible to virtually anybody in the building. On the other was the natural uncertainty that accompanies presenting an unconventional match at WrestleMania.
The end result validated the ambitious approach. The match has endured as one of the standout celebrity wrestling attractions of its era, largely because it was designed around the personas of both men. Zayn was the ideal aggrieved antagonist, growing increasingly exasperated as Knoxville and his associates created one humiliating predicament after another. Knoxville, meanwhile, was not asked to conceal his lack of wrestling experience. That limitation was incorporated directly into the story.
Why Knoxville’s lack of wrestling moves helped the match
Zayn was clear that Knoxville was not a trained wrestler and not an athlete in the conventional WWE sense. However, he also made the case that those facts did not make Knoxville an ineffective opponent for this particular setting. Quite the opposite: Knoxville’s reputation was built on being willing to endure dangerous, painful and ridiculous stunt scenarios, making him uniquely equipped for a match based on that language.
“He’s not a wrestler. He’s not an athlete. But he’s a great man. He was perfect,” Zayn said.
Zayn added a characteristically pointed qualification, saying, “I mean, I hate him,” before describing Knoxville as relentless. The line fits the lingering antagonism of their rivalry, which has continued to be referenced well beyond WrestleMania 38. Yet it also underscores Zayn’s appreciation for the commitment Knoxville brought to the program.
The crucial factor was authenticity. A wrestler attempting to replicate Knoxville’s physical-comedy formula would not carry the same association with the Jackass franchise. Likewise, a different celebrity without Knoxville’s history would not immediately make sense in the same assortment of stunts and props. Zayn believes the bout was inseparable from the two people involved and the moment in which it happened.
“At that time, that match could only be Sami Zayn versus Johnny Knoxville,” Zayn said. “You couldn’t put two other people in there and have the same match.”
That is a notable distinction in a business where successful match formats are often revisited. WWE can produce other celebrity matches, other comedy bouts and other weapon-filled spectacles, but copying the WrestleMania 38 formula would miss the point. The premise depended on Knoxville’s established stunt persona meeting Zayn’s ability to make the indignities feel personal, infuriating and important.
A wrestling match underneath the gadgets
It can be easy to remember the match primarily through its wildest images. Wee Man delivering a bodyslam to Zayn was a crowd-pleasing visual. The giant hand became an instantly recognizable gag. The bowling ball spot and the mousetrap table delivered the type of exaggerated punishment viewers would expect from Knoxville’s world.
But Zayn pushed back on the idea that the bout should be dismissed as nothing more than a collection of props. He argued that the stunts served the same purposes traditional moves would serve in another match. They advanced the momentum, heightened the stakes, escalated the conflict and created the openings needed for the finish.
“It’s easy to watch it and reduce it to just, oh there was a bunch of weapons and stuff, but in fact it was just a wrestling match,” Zayn said.
In Zayn’s assessment, Knoxville’s signature offense was not a suplex, a clothesline or a submission hold. It was the type of elaborate stunt that audiences associated with Jackass. The props were not random additions detached from the characters. They were, in effect, Knoxville’s moveset.
“He doesn’t have wrestling moves. He has Jackass stunts,” Zayn said. “So the moves were replaced by the Jackass stunts, but they still serve the same function.”
That philosophy helps explain why the bout did not need to resemble a standard singles contest to feel coherent. Wrestling has always had room for different styles, whether they emphasize technical exchanges, heavyweight power, aerial risk, brawling, comedy or spectacle. Zayn and Knoxville’s match used the familiar rhythm of a wrestling story, but expressed it through a different set of tools.
Zayn also provided the emotional throughline. His increasingly desperate attempts to overcome Knoxville gave the stunts consequences. The laughs worked because Zayn treated every setback as a serious injustice rather than winking at the camera. That level of commitment allowed the comedy to exist alongside genuine physicality.
The mousetrap table was no joke
Although the match is regularly described as a comedy match, Zayn emphasized that the physical toll was real. The most painful moment for him was the mousetrap table spot, one of the bout’s most memorable pieces of weaponry. He described the table as “crazy” and said it was a major impact that genuinely hurt.
“That mousetrap table, that was a big one that really hurt,” Zayn said.
For Zayn, the pain involved in that sequence is also part of why the match deserves more credit than a simple comedy label allows. Comedy was unquestionably part of the formula, but it was combined with serious bumps and actual violence. The audience could laugh at the absurdity of a giant mousetrap, then react to the fact that a performer was taking a punishing fall onto it.
That blend is difficult to execute. If the violence is too light, the match can feel inconsequential. If the performers treat every moment with unrelenting seriousness, the absurd props can lose their intended effect. WrestleMania 38 found a balance because Zayn played the suffering straight while Knoxville’s stunt background gave the chaos credibility.
Knoxville ultimately earned the victory, completing the celebrity-versus-WWE-star story in front of a massive WrestleMania audience. Years later, Zayn’s comments make clear that he sees the match as more than a novelty. It was a tailored confrontation that used two very different entertainment backgrounds to create a one-of-one WrestleMania spectacle.
The feud may still carry a playful edge in Zayn’s mind, particularly when he calls Knoxville “perfect” before immediately insisting that he hates him. But beneath that lingering frustration is a clear recognition: no ordinary opponent, and no ordinary collection of moves, could have made that match what it was.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.