Originally published at Sami Zayn details original plan for The Bloodline story, off-camera relationship with Jimmy Uso, dynamic with Jey
Sami Zayn chats all things related to The Bloodline.
On WWE TV, Sami Zayn is a member of The Bloodline which consists of Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, Paul Heyman and Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso).
The dynamic amongst the personalities in the group have been highlighted on WWE’s weekly programming. Sami dove into how things came together pertaining to this story on episode #82 of WWE – Die Woche. Zayn said the original concept of this story was him referring to himself as the locker room leader and that creating a dynamic where he reports back to Reigns.
He described it as checking in with one another but it evolved into something more and Zayn says everyone has been locked in on their role to make the story work.
Well so the whole thing actually evolved quite a bit from the initial idea and I really love where we’re at now. I think a lot of the fans are enjoying it so, I’m happy it all went the way it did. But the initial idea wasn’t necessarily to join The Bloodline because I didn’t even think that was possible. It’s The Bloodline, you have to be blood, right? But the idea was I was calling myself the locker room leader, especially at that time and of course Roman Reigns is the Head of the Table. So the idea would have been to have sort of an on-screen relationship where I’m checking in with him and he’s checking in with me and I can help him out when the time is right and you know, that kind of thing. But then it kind of just morphed and evolved into this and it’s been a collaborative process for sure with everybody involved and everybody’s just really in their roles really full-steam ahead and I think that’s what’s making it work so well is everyone’s so committed to it and the fans are — it’s so funny because I just see them predicting what’s gonna happen next every week and it’s never quite what they think is gonna happen so that’s what I love. It’s kind of semi-predictable, but it’s not at all predictable, you know?
Since being formally welcomed into The Bloodline, Zayn has received positive reactions from the crowds in large doses. It was suggested by a user in the live stream that Zayn might be more popular than Roman Reigns.
He said he would not go as far to say that because he feels the reason he is getting the reactions he’s getting is because of that dynamic with Reigns. Zayn did expect for this storyline to change the fans’ perspective on him but not this fast.
I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say I’m more popular than Roman Reigns for sure because part of the reason I’m getting popular is because of the interaction with Roman Reigns and because the interactions have been enjoyable, I think that’s when the fans are beginning to warm up to me a little bit, right? But without him, it doesn’t work the same… When we come out there, we’re starting to kind of hear them single me out and cheer for me. I think that’s because they wanna see where that goes. They’re curious to see where that part of it goes which again, great and the fact that I just told you beginning of this interview, I was in New York City for a few days and New York’s a big wrestling town so I was getting stopped by fans a lot those two or three days and every one of them, it was like, ‘Honorary Uce!’ Honorary Uce’, you know? So they’re really, really digging this and I love it. I actually kind of did expect this storyline in a way to start to turn the fans’ perspective on me a little bit. But not this quick and not this much. It has been surprising for sure.
The dynamic between himself and Jey Uso is one that Sami touched on. Jey is not fond of Zayn being in the group but he has won over Reigns, Jimmy and Solo.
Zayn spoke in-character about Jey and said he understands not wanting to roll out the ‘welcome’ mat for an outsider but feels things are vastly different at this point versus how it started.
You know, I don’t know . The weirdest thing is we’ve always been very cool. You can see videos of us even from NXT when they came down there. We’re dancing together, we’re hanging out, we’ve always gotten along great. But I do think the rivalry he had with Roman Reigns a couple of years ago, in my opinion, it did something to him and to become the right-hand man and all this, it’s obviously a position he takes very seriously and look, I kind of understand not wanting to roll out the welcome mat to an ‘outsider’ at first. But at this point, come on, you know? Come on uce.
Following up on that, he focused in on the dynamic with Jimmy Uso. He said he was concerned because people were so focused on that on-screen relationship with Jey but the relationship with Jimmy is important to the story as well.
Zayn added that he and Jimmy are the same way backstage that they are on television and it has been fun for him to bring their off-camera friendship on-screen.
I just loved it so much what we got to do this week in Brooklyn posted the video in Brooklyn where I’m like, ‘How do you not love Jimmy?’ And the fans are just going crazy and he’s just got such a great smile and we’re doing our secret handshake and it’s just so cool because like I said, I’ve known these guys for almost ten years now and I love ‘em and I’m so glad because that’s really how we are backstage and I’m so glad we get to do this in the ring now. So much of our friendship backstage over the years is now kind of being shown on TV so I’m really — I’m so happy that we get to do it on TV, you know?
The Bloodline segment from the season premiere of Raw resulted in Jey instigating a match between Sami and Matt Riddle that Sami lost. Jimmy wanted to help Sami during the match but Jey insisted that Zayn handle it on his own.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WWE – Die Woche with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.