YMMV / Sami Zayn

• Award Snub: Despite his accolades in other promotions, his stellar NXT and main-roster work, and the fact that he's one of the very few wrestlers smarks and marks alike seem to love, it took him until March 2020 - a full five years since his NXT title win — to win a single main-roster title in WWE, winning the Intercontinental Title at Elimination Chamber.
• Broken Base: His Face–Heel Turn. To some (Like Dave Meltzer), it's a necessary and refreshing change to a character that was seen as bland and a glorified jobber. To others (Like Josh Scorcher), it's an unnecessary and out of character moment, comparable to the "Captain America was a Hydra agent" plotline, that is justified by Insane Troll Logic and that completely invalidates his entire Character Arc in NXT and takes away the very thing that makes him a unique character in the first place.^note Also, Zayn's character on the WWE main roster (where every aspect of almost every performer is micromanaged to the last detail) being a "bland, glorified jobber", is less the fault of Sami himself and more the fault of the heads of the WWE creative team. Of course, there are those who Take a Third Option, sharing the second groups distaste, but are optimistically trying to come up with complicated theories to justify it's inclusion.
  • His slow-burn descent into Dirty Coward tactics, losing all of his beloved moves and relying only on punches and running away during matches. For months, he stopped wrestling entirely, working only as the manager of Nakamura (and Cesaro, for a bit). Some fans wanted to trust the performer and the process, hoping that it was part of a more intricate storyline (and possible Heel–Face Turn), others became thoroughly annoyed with his repetitive trolling.
  • Whether you think that the main event title match at Wrestlemania 39 should go to Cody Rhodes (winner of the Royal Rumble, golden boy returning "home" after a pec tear to capture the championship his father never did) or Sami Zayn (anchor of the biggest and most popular faction in wrestling, the Bloodline, and the cowardly heel making his way back to babyface-dom after being rejected by Roman).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: As Sami Zayn, he's beloved by many crowds, to the point that simply saying "Sami Zayn" prompted NXT crowds to start singing the "Ole!" song, and six years later, crowds will still chant "OLE" for him.
  • Sami’s goodwill with the crowd is so all-encompassing that Roman Reigns is getting face pops as a heel bigger than he did as a face simply for taking Sami’s side in the one-sided feud inside the Bloodline between Sami and Jey. After the 2022 Survivor Series Paul Heyman even lampshaded at a media scrum, likening Sami’s presence in the group to a guest character on a TV show who did so well that they got elevated to the main cast. Sami, sitting next to Heyman and clearly blown away by the compliment, could only respond with a sheepish “That’s nice.”
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Think the name "Sami Zayn" is some generic name made up on the spot by WWE Creative? Open up Google Translate and translate the name into Arabic, then translate the result back into English. However, it's likely this is a fan abusing the 'suggest a translation' feature of Google Translate.
  • The "SZ" logo he currently uses is pretty much based on one of his old El Generico mask designs.
  • Stephanie McMahon has confessed onscreen that she can't stand him. She finds his positive "underdog" persona cloying. Now, given that Sami hasn't gotten a huge push yet, this seems sort of random... until you realize that he probably reminds Stephanie a lot of another underdog former indy wrestler she didn't like...
• Fridge Logic: If Generico and Zayn are, according to Kevin Steen, different people, why does Owens hate Zayn so much? It was explained as Steen/Owens resenting that Zayn got called to WWE before he did, despite having spent so much of their careers together and being on equal levels as wrestlers.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Outside of the USA, where NXT is actually broadcast on television, he was already massively over in the WWE before his debut on the main roster. To put it in perspective, the WWE were taking him on international tours whilst he was still in NXT precisely because of this.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Part of Sami Zayn's character in WWE is that he and Kevin basically do everything together. If they're not friends, they're typically feuding directly with each other. Commentators have even suggested that this strong bond is holding both guys back. This held true in a very unfortunate Real Life way in 2018, where both suffered injuries and had to go onto the shelf for bilateral surgeries (Zayn on his shoulders, KO a few months later on his knees). Coincidentally, both guys were also written off TV via PPV losses to Bobby Lashley.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: While on Chris Jericho's podcast the subject of merchandise came up. Jericho asked Sami why the WWE wasn't selling his now iconic flatcap as a part of his merch. Sami laughed it off saying it would the lamest merch item they could sell. Cut to a few months later...
• Ho Yay: With Kevin Owens. It dates all the way back to their days teaming together in the indies as Kevin Steen and El Generico. After the betrayal that started what many considered to be the greatest feud in Ring of Honor history, it became very clear that they, as Steen put it, were "destined to do this forever." It was months before El Generico finally found it in himself to hit Kevin Steen, and that was only after the encouragement of Colt Cabana and Steen's constant abuse. To say nothing of the mind games, the heated stares, Steen's fixation with Generico's mask... upon rewatching the entire feud, the Homoerotic Subtext of their rivalry (which was possibly acknowledged at Final Battle 2010 when Steen kissed Generico on the lips) becomes much more evident. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the feud continued in NXT, and then again on the WWE main roster. It comes off as a very bitter breakup at times, or a love/hate Masochism Tango that has them intertwined for eternity, which both have lampshaded:
  Sami: One thing I can tell you for sure when it comes to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens? That story is never over.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Brainbustaaaaahhhhh!!!!!"
  • The "Olé!" chants are so tied to him, that when the WWE tried to give an "Olé!" chant to Los Matadores (as in, the "Ooooh-lé!" heard in bullfights, as opposed to the "O-LEH!" used in football chants that is the one associated with El Generico), the NXT audiences just carried on singing the "O-LEH!" one in support of Generico/Zayn instead.
  • Fans pretending every time "Zayn" is trending in reference to ex-One Direction singer Zayn Malik that it's about Sami Zayn instead. The reverse ended up happening during Sami's debut on RAW to challenge John Cena for the United States championship, where Sami Zayn began trending and One Direction fans believed it was about Zayn Malik.
  • Translating "Sami Zayn" to Arabic and back again. See "Fridge Brilliance" above.
  • Much in the vein of "Guile's Theme Goes With Everything", now we have "Sami Zayn Theme Goes With Every Anime Opening" on YouTube.
  • Dancing Sami!◊
  • Feelin’ Ucey.^Explanation After Jey Uso accidentally shouts that he doesn't care what Roman thinks (about making peace bewteen one another), Zayn quickly covers up Jey's Freudian Slip by telling Roman that Jey hasn't been feeling "very usey" lately. It's notable that this caused the Bloodline to start corpsing with Reigns stating in disbelief that Jey has lost his "inner Ucey".
  • "MY DAWG!" ^Explanation Painfully un-hip Sami trying to mimic the Usos slang, it comes off as the living embodiment of that Steve Buscemi "how do you do fellow kids" meme. In one memorable promo involving Bloodline and Logan Paul on the build up to the 2022 Crown Jewel, Sami saying it is enough to cause both Roman and Logan to start corpsing.
• Play-Along Meme: Everyone knows that El Generico is a completely different wrestler! He didn't take off his mask to go to NXT, he retired to Tijuana to spend time with all the orphans he supported with his wrestling winnings, right?
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Of course, that was before he took time off, came back in late 2006, and formed a permanent Tag Team in 2007 with another fellow Canadian Scrappy which produced a memorable match against the Briscoe Brothers, earning them both full-time spots and a second chance with the fans. The rest speaks for itself.
• The Scrappy: Believe it or not, El Generico was actually kinda hated by ROH fans in his first year there, as they felt that he didn't deserve to be part of the company due to many flaws in his then-fledgling ring work which they proceeded to pick apart.
• Signature Scene:
  • In a meeting with the Bloodline, Sami covers for Jey's bluff on "Not giving a damn on what the Tribal Chief thinks (about the Usos and Sami getting along)" by stating Jey hasn't been feeling "very ucey". This was notable for having nearly everyone in the ring corpsing, particularly Roman Reigns.
  • In a recreation of Seth Rollins' infamous "There's always a Plan B", Sami strikes Roman Reigns from the back with a steel chair at the end of Royal Rumble 2023.
• Strawman Has a Point: Overlaps with Unintentionally Sympathetic, but excluding Daniel Bryan's participation, many fans sided with Owens and Zayn regarding their in-universe mistreatment by Shane McMahon. This is even brought up by Zayn in his post-heel turn promo, pointing out how Shane (the ostensible babyface of the feud) seems to be acting like a psychopath, punishing Owens (and subsequently, Zayn) far beyond simple retribution for Owens' headbutting his father and constantly screwing them out of title wins. It continues into their return to Raw, where fans would consistently cheer the witty heel antics of Zayn over the excruciatingly awkward and bland babyface Lashley.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: There were a lot of unhappy campers when it was reported that he would be ditching his masked persona as El Generico after signing with WWE. Once he removed the mask, though, people were impressed by his rich facial expressions, as well as his ability to cut a very passionate and genuine-sounding promo.
  • After his heel turn at Hell in a Cell 2017, there was a lot of complaining that WWE had "ruined" one of the best natural babyfaces in years and the "heart and soul of NXT". While Sami proved himself to have the same talent at cutting heel promos and ability to entertain as he had as a babyface, many fans still see this as terrible writing for the character, even while they praise the performer for doing a stellar job at what is essentially polishing a turd.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Given the natural chemistry of the pairing of Owens and Zayn, combined with both being stellar in-ring workers with disparate yet complementary styles and their history as an indy tag team, one could very easily make the argument that WWE missed a huge opportunity by not throwing the pair into the tag team division after their program with Shane McMahon had guttered. It would have given the two a great niche, freshened up the tag team scene after what one could contend was a few too many matches between The Bar, The New Day, and The Usos (all great teams, obviously, but WWE somewhat ran the rivalries into the ground). And it may have even kept the injuries each suffered from getting as bad as they did.
• Throw It In!: Many reports state that Sami's association with the Bloodline was originally meant to be a short-term gag. Then Sami's antics proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Bloodline. Then the "Ucey" promo happened, and by that point WWE's higher-ups had probably realized there was quite a bit of money in riding that train as far as it would go.
• Tough Act to Follow: Sami has a tendency to outright steal the show when given the right opponent.
  • At the end of his Payback 2016 match with Kevin Owens, JBL was one of the commentators.
  JBL: Somebody call the Chicago PD because these boys just stole the freaking show!