Throughout the history of the WWE – from Vince Mcmahon Sr’s Golden Age, stretching through to the Attitude Era, to the Ruthless Aggression Era and much of the so-called “PG Era” – the WWE locker room has been mostly populated by very big men with very imposing arm muscles, each of whom looked like they could quite easily snap off one of my legs and use it as a hairy toothpick. Even John Cena, who arguably looks like the most approachable “Face of the WWE” compared to the intimidating likes of the beer-swillin’ bald redneck Steve Austin and the mahogany-colored part-time racist Hulk Hogan, is a massive chap with forearms as wide as my neck. But that’s no longer the case.
During the Reality Era we saw a variety of Superstars begin filtering into the WWE who didn’t resemble what we’d come to expect from our wrestlers. They were each more in shape than your average admin worker, sure, but they were notably smaller, a little rougher around the edges aesthetically and more focused upon putting on a great match rather than standing around looking appropriately massive. Guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan left an indelible impression upon WWE’s talent scouting, causing Vince McMahon to no longer place an emphasis upon hiring huge guys to lead the company, which has resulted in the WWE currently boasting its most athletically skilled yet physically unimposing roster in its history. That and the lack of steroids floating around the locker room, but that’s another story.
However, whereas D-Bry and Punk led the charge in a company that was too pre-occupied with continuing to maintain the status quo, with there being no greater evidence of this than Vince actually believing that people wanted to see Batista vs Randy Orton in the WrestleMania 30 main event, these days that status quo has all but evaporated. Yes, Vince likely keeps a scrapbook of Roman Reigns photographs in his sock drawer, but for the most part the most popular wrestlers in the company are talented athletes who don’t look like they were sent down to Earth from Mount Olympus. Unfortunately, this places a man such as Sami Zayn at a disadvantage.
Much like Daniel Bryan, Sami Zayn is a natural underdog. His gimmick is built around him not possessing the traits you’d most commonly associate with a professional wrestler, but he’s gifted enough at his job that it doesn’t matter. He’s a character who is supposed to draw a surprised reaction whenever he picks up a pinfall victory because, given his lean build and penchant for ska – the universally recognized genre of music for people who won’t succeed in life – he really shouldn’t be beating anyone at all. However, whereas this gimmick would have been easily distinguishable in any other era of the WWE, in 2016 Sami Zayn is part of a roster in which the majority of the top guys have been pitched as underdogs, leaving him with not a whole lot of creative legroom.
The two WWE SummerSlam heavyweight title matches featured four men who have each been portrayed as underdogs during their tenure with the company. Seth Rollins spent his lengthy reign as champion being positioned against opponents that we were told should be able to beat him, before he’d pull some cowardly heel tactics to retain his title. Dean Ambrose was previously the only member of The Shield to not quite break into the main event, rifling around in the mid-card for an inordinate amount of time and being manhandled by Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. Dolph Ziggler has flirted with a top-tier push on several occasions, but has never really been able to grab those fabled “brass rings” we hear so much about. Then there’s Finn Balor, who received a substantial push in NXT but was immediately inserted into the Universal title picture upon his main roster debut, thus making him an unlikely candidate for RAW’s first Universal champion.
But if the underdogs are taking over this “New Era” of WWE, then where does that leave Sami Zayn, a man whose shtick revolves around overcoming the odds against guys bigger than he is? Despite him having put on some of the best matches in the company since his debut, Zayn was relegated to the SummerSlam pre-show and, aside from his never-ending feud with Kevin Owens, he has mostly been involved in multi-man matches in which he plays a minor role. He’s the consistent worker WWE brings out to put on a good in-ring show, but they have neglected to invest the necessary time into his character to ensure that he establishes a connection with the audience. He’s a man whose sole established personality trait is that he wears a hat sometimes. Something is clearly missing.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be like this. Unlike other Superstars on the roster who are talented in-ring but lack the charisma to really resonate with the audience, such as the grammatically impotent luchador Kalisto or personality vacuum Neville, Sami Zayn is capable of putting across a compelling character that wrestling fans can get behind. Prior to landing in the WWE Zayn wrestled under the moniker El Generico, an indie circuit modern legend whose gimmick was that he believed he was Mexican. It may sound ridiculous – and that’s largely because it was – but El Generico built up a major following on the independent scene alongside frequent tag partner and rival Kevin Owens, then known as Kevin Steen. But when WWE signed El Generico they repackaged him as Sami Zayn, forgetting to give him any discernible gimmick to work with in the process.
WWE is currently failing Sami Zayn far more than anyone else on the active roster. While many would argue that Cesaro is the wrestler most deserving of the creative team’s attention, he’s yet to prove himself as being adept enough on the mic to really resonate with the audience in a meaningful way, something which wouldn’t be an issue with Zayn. He’s one of the most consistent and exciting in-ring workers the WWE has, an incredibly likable babyface and a proven promo cutter from his time on the indie circuit and his brief flirtations with an actual storyline in WWE. Perhaps now that Owens is the Universal champion we’ll see Zayn appear in a main event angle, but even then that doesn’t account for much if there isn’t a reason for the fans to care about him. It’s time for WWE to make Zayn more than just a silly hat and a theme song.
