Was Sami Zayn's AEW Shoutout on WWE Raw Scripted?

Sami Zayn sent Wrestling Twitter into a frenzy on Monday Night Raw this week when he casually [...]

Sami Zayn sent Wrestling Twitter into a frenzy on Monday Night Raw this week when he casually name-dropped All Elite Wrestling. During a new segment titled "The Electric Chair," Zayn was forced to sit in the ring while fans from the audience asked him questions. Instead of answering them, Zayn repeatedly chastised the fans for not asking better questions, before saying "You could have asked me anything. You could have asked me about AEW." That last line was cut from the replay on WWE's YouTube channel and the segment quickly transitioned to Seth Rollins running down to the ring for the main event.

So was Zayn's line about WWE's newest competition part of the script? Well it depends on who you ask. Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer said it was scripted on Wrestling Observer Radio, but his co-host Bryan Alvarez claimed to have his own source who said it wasn't and that Zayn came up with it on the fly.

Meanwhile PWInsider's Mike Johnson claimed to have multiple sources tell him Zayn improvised the line.

"PWInsider.com, in asking around, was told by several sources this morning that Zayn's AEW line was not something that was in the script for Raw and was likely something Zayn, who pitches his own verbiage, improvised," Johnson wrote.

Pro Wrestling Sheet's Ryan Satin emphatically stated on Tuesday afternoon that Zayn's mentioning of AEW was part of the plan.

Both Matt and Nick Jackson took notice of Zayn's shout-out on Twitter shortly after it happened.

AEW had its fair share of WWE mentions during Saturday's Double or Nothing event, particularly when Cody Rhodes smashed a throne with a sledgehammer during his entrance as a direct reference to Triple H.

"I loved when Triple H came out at WrestleMania 30, and he was kind of like of Shao Khan, and it was really cool. The throne kind of really symbolized his reign," Rhodes said in his post-match press conference. "I'm going to play ball. I know we don't say 'competition,' but it pretty much stands for itself.

"That more than anything, not so much a shot at Triple H," he added. "More of a shot at to dive into that role. I want to be a wrestler first and foremost. I'm not done. I know people think Kenny is the best. Other people think Chris [Jericho] is the best or Jon Moxley is the best. I'm always going to be wondering, 'What can I do? What's the next step?'

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