After being held off of every card WWE booked in Saudi Arabia since 2014 – where he went 2-1 against a murder's row of Heath Slater, Cesaro, and Damien Sandow on a house show tour – Sami Zayn made his triumphant return to the Middle East at Night of Champions, where he and Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa for the right to remain the Undisputed Tag Team Champions.
For Zayn, this was an incredible trip, as the 38-year-old was able to visit Mecca, visit with family members he hasn't seen in decades, and see how the fans in a predominantly Muslim country would react to his spot at the top of a WWE card; a reaction that Zayn and fans alike won't soon forget.
Stopping by After the Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, Zayn reflected on the trip and noted just how special it was to represent at the show in front of “his people.”
“It was a really heavy trip. A lot went into it, to be honest. The fact that I haven't been there in a few years, and that there has been so much speculation as to why I'm not going and the political reasoning and this and that. I won't get into all of it, but I will tell you that 99.9% of what you've read online about this subject is completely fabricated, completely just…people assuming things and then running with those assumptions and adding onto them. It's wild. Anytime they can't get concrete answers, that's kind of what tends to happen. It's human nature, almost,” Zayn said.
“So, it was pretty heavy in a lot of ways, it had a lot of weight. And then the actual event itself and the reception from the audience, it's kind of what I've been waiting for for a while in a way because, again, I always felt I would have been the natural representative for those shows and I just wasn't. So, it was good to finally be put in that position.”
Though fans may never know the “real” reason Zayn was held off of cards in Saudi Arabia in the past, if his showing at Night of Champions is of any indication, he should be a fixture of the cards moving forward, as he proved definitively that “The Underdog from the Underground” clearly has a posse of fans who have his back.
Sami Zayn reflects on the (hopefully) end of his The Bloodline storyline.
Elsewhere on After the Bell, Zayn reflected on his storyline with The Bloodline and noted just how all-encompassing what was initially a one-off appearance that rapidly turned into a solid year of his career. For Zayn, the storyline was “magical,” and unlike almost anything else he experienced in his career.
“Even if I were to say something like that, it could come off arrogant or biased, but I have every metric available to us backing up that sentiment,” Zayn said via Fightful. “Numbers ranging from social media engagement, viewership, live attendance, merchandise, and just in general. The amount I've been bombarded on the streets, before the storyline and after the storyline, the amount of people who told me, ‘I kind of fell out of love with the product for a while, I stopped watching, this storyline brought me back in.' That's one of the most rewarding things you could possibly hear from a fan. I do think we stumbled upon something kind of magical, lightning in a bottle, the fact that we were able to draw it out for over a year, and it's still going on, it's next evolution, it's me speculating, but the only thing I can liken it to is my story with Kevin, which is a 20-year story.”
Though one can never say never in professional wrestling, for Zayn, his win with KO at Night of Champions felt like the ending of his storyline with The Bloodline, as, after months of prophesizing, he finally splintered The Bloodline and helped to usher The Usos towards the storyline's ultimate conclusion.
“In some ways, I think the evolution of the story, and this is me speculating, while I think the Sami and Kevin side has kind of put a bow on it, we got the revenge on Roman, and now we've seen the Bloodline crumble, or at least appear to splinter, I do think it could be one of those things that is so magical,” Zayn said. “Like Kevin and Sami, the key to it could be going apart, and coming back together, going apart, coming back together, to where it could actually be, if you do it successfully, could be woven in a way for another three, four years, but you do it in a way that is conscientious to where you're not burning fans out on it, where they're actually excited to see the next stage of it.”
Now granted, this isn't the first time Zayn has “put a bow” on his story with The Bloodline, with “The Underdog from the Underground” famously declaring that his chapter of The Bloodline story was over mere days before he was thrust back into action in a tag team storyline with “The Tribal Chief” and his enforcer in the main event of Night of Champions. Still, unless he and KO decided to jump brands and crash Reigns' 1,000th day as Universal Champion celebration on SmackDown, it's safe to assume his comments are genuine this time around… at least until they aren't.
Follow Us
Subscribe