Sami Zayn highlights the special storytelling featured in his feud with The Bloodline, which culminated at WWE WrestleMania 39.
Over the course of the past year, Zayn gradually joined The Bloodline; he was initially a stooge for the group, but he proved himself as “The Honorary Uce” by helping the stable on a number of occasions. He eventually turned on the stable at WWE Royal Rumble 2023, leading to a feud with Roman Reigns.
The feud then shifted to a clash with The Usos, and though Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were initially at odds with each other, they ultimately reunited and challenged Jimmy and Jey for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 39. In the main event, Owens and Zayn defeated the duo to win the gold.
At the WrestleMania 39 post-show press conference on April 1, Jon Alba asked Owens and Zayn about incorporating their pre-WWE history as part of their storyline. Zayn noted that the length and the depth of their story was special, and WrestleMania felt like the culmination. He cited the number of callbacks and emphasized that the program had to be with Reigns and The Usos, given their relationship.
“There are Hall of Famers, there are world champions, multiple times over. I’m talking some of the best of the best of the best ever, that have never gotten to tell a story like this, over this course of time, with this level of depth, with this many talented individuals in front and in back of the camera, but especially on the performance side of it,” Zayn said. “So I feel just so lucky to have been a part of it. This feels like the culmination of it, although as you said, it’s a pretty long timeline with WWE.
“So even if you think you’ve put a nice little bow on it, we can unravel that any time and call back to it. I think that’s actually been the beauty of this story is the number of callbacks. Also, so much of it would not have worked with any other individuals. It had to be The Usos and Roman because that is a legitimate lifelong relationship. It had to be Kevin because that is a legitimate 20-year friendship. Without that level of reality bleeding into story, it just wouldn’t work.”
Zayn continued by describing how he believes that the rivalry transcended the typical type of storytelling seen in wrestling. He explained how it could impact wrestling the way The Sopranos changed storytelling in television.
“Again, one of the things that I take a lot of pride in with this story over the past year is that I do think it transcended the classical kind of wrestling storyline, for sure,” Zayn said. “I actually think it’s a glimpse, because if it’s effectiveness, I think it could be a glimpse of what storylines going forward, if not achieve, will at least aspire to, in my opinion.
“Much like you saw with television, how it kind of evolved to the golden age of television in the 2000s with HBO and things like that and more complex and layered characters, so too do I think this story, if I may be so bold as to offer a comparison, it’s almost like ‘The Sopranos‘. It is to WWE what ‘The Sopranos’ was to television, if I may be so bold as to make that comparison.”
The Sopranos is one of the most renowned television shows of all time; among other accolades, it won 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards
Catch up on our coverage of WWE WrestleMania 39 here.
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