An opinion piece by @McIverTheMark.
If you’ve ever read any of my articles on this lovely website, you might have guessed that my favourite wrestler is Sami Zayn. He’s character is endearing; his passion is self-evident and he sells like no other wrestler on the planet.
When I watch Sami Zayn, I am transported back to a time where I didn’t view wrestling from an insider or journalistic mindset- I watched it as a fan and nothing more. Sami makes me feel like that again, along with a few others.
However, thanks to all this I always felt he had been underutilised on Raw. Never getting the big opportunities his best friend got in Kevin Owens, never pushing for a title and just seemed to sit in limbo as the punching bag for the worst character in wrestling, Stephanie McMahon. Thus, fans were crying out for Zayn to be moved to the hallowed turf that is SmackDown Live. And two weeks ago, in the Superstar Shakeup, we got just that.
Since then…we don’t really know what’s going to happen. Many people have argued that Zayn is being treated exactly the same as he was on Raw; he’s just getting more screen time now. On two consecutive shows, Zayn has cleanly eaten a pin fall. Admittedly in VERY different circumstances; being defeated after an incredible match by AJ Styles is a million times better than being pinned by the bafflingly new No.1 Contender for the WWE Title Jinder Mahal. So, fans could be viewed in the right when they say he’s being ‘buried’ and ‘underutilised’ consistently.
However, I feel there is a difference. While the conclusion of the Six Pack Challenge last week was, in my humble opinion, the worst I’ve seen in years; Zayn was still one of the most credible threats in a WWE Championship No.1 Contenders match. Likewise- the week prior he was put in the main event of his first ever SmackDown Live show against a rising star in Baron Corbin and, debatably, the greatest wrestler in the world today in AJ Styles.
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Overall, I feel Zayn will be much, MUCH better off on SmackDown Live than he was on Raw. With the shorter run time- those presented on the show, as we’ve seen, have been made to feel like a bigger deal than their Monday Night colleagues. I hope that Zayn comes out tomorrow furious at the miscarriage of justice that was presented to him and continues to push through that pesky glass ceiling and become the reliable main eventer that every fan knows he has the potential to be. Just go watch his matches in NXT…and I guarantee you’ll leave chanting OLE’.