Why did Sami Zayn work so well in The Bloodline? Was it his quick wit in coming up with nicknames like “The Honorary Uce,” and how he was feeling “Ucey?” Or maybe his willingness to be the butt of the joke and look foolish in an earnest attempt to entertain fans?

Well, in the opinion of Paul Heyman, the answer is pretty simple, actually; it's because Zayn is an everyman afforded a chance to sit at the cool kids table before learning that it wasn't all it's cracked up to be.

Discussing how “The Underdog from the Underground” fit into The Bloodline in an appearance on Rick Rubin's Tetragrammaton podcast, Heyman explained how Zayn was able to become a part of the most exclusive crew in the WWE Universe and how it was never going to last from the first moment the two acts first shared the screen together.

“The Sami story was the story of acceptance,” Heyman said via Fghtful. “I've given this before, so I apologize, it's not unique, but the application of this explanation still applies. Anybody that's been past seventh or eighth grade can relate to this. You're in high school. You're sitting at a table, you look at another table, and you say, ‘I want to sit with those guys.’ And your friends will say, ‘Yeah, but they're a**holes.’ Yeah, I know they're a**holes, but I want to sit with them. But why, they’re a**holes. Because everybody notices them. Because they're the center of attention. Because in this high school, now let's use the word island, they are irrelevant. They live on the island of relevancy, and that's where I want to reside. And somehow, you get your way into that circle. You're in that clique, you're in that elite group that no one else can get into. You're in a closed-door society. You're relevant. And you look around, and you say, ‘Wow, these guys are a**holes. How do I get away from them? And how do I get my revenge for the way that they're treating me like the a**hole that I'm not? I’m pissed off.’ It's dangling the carrot in front of the horse, and the horse finally gets the carrot and realizes the carrot is sour.”

“From the day this story started, it was obvious where it was going to go. It was obvious. Sami was going to get close. It was obvious Sami was going to get in. It was obvious he was going to be sitting at our table, living on the island of relevancy. And it was obvious he was going to get bullied and battered and beaten and subjected to our a**holedom to such a degree that at some point, he's going to say, ‘I don't want to be here anymore. I want out. This ain't for me. They’re not who I thought you were. I don't like you guys anymore.’ And it was obvious that for that he was going to pay a price. And yeah, people wanted to see it play out. They knew the story that was going to be told, and they wanted to see our take on that age-old tale.”

Unfortunately for Zayn, it's hard to argue with Heyman's assertion, as a happy-go-lucky indie guy was never going to become a legit member of The Bloodline unless the Usos have a Uso-ette looking for a husband – which doesn't make sense for a number of reasons. Still, just because the angle had a clear expiration date doesn't mean it wasn't great while it lasted. In the humble opinion of Heyman, Zayn did his job about as well as anyone could ask for and is reaping the benefits of it to this very day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5v327D8YhY&t=321s

Paul Heyman complements Sami Zayn for his “hush puppy face.”

Asked by Rick Rubin what it was like to work with Sami Zayn for the better part of a year, the ECW booker put him over for being a consummate professional… and for having one of the best “hush puppy face” in the business.

“Sami Zayn was magnificent. He's just so endearing. He does more with a hush puppy sad face than we could do playing to the people in the cheap seats,” Heyman said. “You know the old expression in our business is you never look down, you look up. Number one, it's more cinematic, it's more operatic. But if you look down, the people up top can't see you. If you look up with your pain and your expressions, then everyone can see you, and it's more majestic, and it's larger theatre. And Sami can do more just with that hush puppy face and a close-up of him looking sad than any of us can do reaching out for the 5, 10, 50, 100,000 people in an arena, NBA arena, club, building, or stadium that we play. He was just wonderful.”

When the final storyline of The Bloodline has been told, the final match has been wrestled, and the longest-running tale WWE has told in a generation comes to a close, how will Zayn's part in the story be remembered? Will he be considered an integral part of the story, serving as an inflection point in the tale when he and Kevin Owens took the belts off of The Usos at WrestleMania 39? Or will his part be more of a supplemental angle in the story – a filler arch, if you will – moreso than required viewing for fans looking for a cliff notes version of the three-years-and-counting storyline?

Only time will tell, but right now, few performers have the same rub from working with Roman Reigns as “The Underdog from the Underground,” and he should be able to ride the momentum to even more important storylines for years to come.