It wasn’t that long ago when Sami Zayn was the underdog babyface who most fans were rooting on to eventually win the WWE championship. But there was a change in his character after he was booked like a total loser in his WWE title match at Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.
Since then, Zayn has progressed more towards the heel side of the ledger while being conflicted about doing the right thing versus taking advantage of opportunities. Some fans even threw a damning “Sami Hogan” moniker at him after he took
away Carmelo Hayes’ US championship and spot at WrestleMania 42.
Zayn has since dropped the belt to Trick Williams and murdered the Gingerbread Man on SmackDown, making it more clear why he deserves the growing boos. However, in an interview with the Toronto Sun, Zayn said he isn’t fully committed to being a a bad guy. It sounds like he wants to let the situation play out organically and let the fans choose for him.
Here is how Sami explained it:
“I’ll disagree with your statement that I’ve fully turned heel here. I don’t think I have. I think I’m trying to play this one a little different…I had this idea for a slight character shift that would be a little kind of outside the box and kind of split the audience a little bit. But sometimes things just don’t work out exactly how you envision it, and sometimes you think you’re gonna be somewhere on the timeline, and you’re not. You know what I mean? Maybe I’m being a little vague here about it.
But all this to say, I still think there’s a ways to go, and it can still go in a number of different ways, which I find very interesting, and kind of refreshing. Although to be fair, if you kick a mannequin Gingerbread Man below the belt, that might upset some people, because people want to have fun.
…The thing that I find interesting is I’m getting booed, but then I’ll high-five fans on the way to the ring, and I’m leaving the ring and I’m seeing cheers. There was this one week I got booed so heavily…but then during the commercial break when I was standing in the ring looking around, all these fans were waving and throwing up little hearts. And I’m like, what is going on here?
So I think this kind of polarizing thing, and talking about my fans, the ride-or-die fans that haven’t turned their back on me…I just think there’s something fun there. I like giving fans a choice. You can be on either side of the fence a little bit. But again, we’ll kind of see, ’cause everything is kind of organically unfolding. So we’ll see where things land, but I don’t think I’ve fully committed, or fully embraced the dark side, as you would maybe put it.”
Do you think Sami is in denial about what is an obvious heel turn, or is there a chance that WWE fan reactions can prevent him from embracing the dark side? Let me know your thoughts about the choice Sami Zayn is giving you in the comments below, Cagesiders.
