Sami Zayn is re-surging as a singles star. The fan-favorite defeated Gunther to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship this past April at WWE WrestleMania 40, ending the Ring General’s record-shattering 666-day reign. Since then, Zayn has been put in the brightest singles spotlight of his career, headlining episodes of WWE Monday Night Raw and receiving cinematic-style entrances in the process. Zayn has flirted with this level of success before, most notably during his run with The Bloodline and eventual Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns, but he never broke through that glass ceiling.
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Sami Zayn Details Triple H’s Vision For His Character
Today, those glass ceilings are significantly less bulletproof.
When asked how he thinks his world championship chances fair under WWE’s Triple H regime compared to the Vince McMahon era, WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn laid out his perspective.
“Here’s how I see it: I think Vince saw me much more as a bad guy, for a number of reasons. He saw my irksome qualities, which he thought lent itself to being an irksome character,” Zayn told Daily Mail. “Having said that, I think things were a lot more unpredictable because of the nature of Vince’s week-to-week kind of approach, that sometimes the marble would just fall in the right hole, and now you’re champion, whereas with Hunter, I think it’s much more he has longer-term vision, and if you’re not part of that vision, then the chances of breaking into that vision are much, much slimmer.”
Based on his booking over the past two years, Zayn does appear to be a key figure of Triple H’s longer-term vision. Zayn’s alliance with The Bloodline, a move that catapulted him from midcard comedy act to bonafide main-event competitor, went into effect right around the time that Triple H assumed much of his creative power. Prior to Triple H taking over, there were rumors that Zayn working with The Bloodline was only going to be for a couple of weeks. Instead, that specific story went for well over one year, and Zayn parlayed that momentum into the Intercontinental Title run he’s currently enjoying.
That said, Zayn is far from content with where he is right now.
“I’d like to win the world title once before I call it a day, there’s no question,” Zayn continued. “But I don’t live and die by that. It’d be great, and I really appreciate people saying they’d love to see it. I’d love to see it too, and I hope it happens, but if it doesn’t, thank you just the same, because it’s been amazing.”
