Did Sami Zayn Turn Heel On WWE SmackDown? Truth Finally Revealed
Sami Zayn has given his opinion on whether he has fully become a heel in WWE.
The United States Championship changed hands at WrestleMania 42 when Trick Williams beat Sami Zayn to become the new US Champion. For Williams, it was his first championship since joining the WWE main roster.
What has been interesting about the feud is that Trick started as a cocky heel, but the fans like his “Whoop That Trick” entrance a lot, as well as his charisma, so it certainly feels like Trick is a babyface in WWE these days.
On the SmackDown after WrestleMania, Sami Zayn was dressed up as the Gingerbread Man and attacked Trick Williams, as well as his buddy Lil Yachty, which certainly made it seem like Zayn embraced his heelish ways.
The May 1st edition of WWE SmackDown saw Sami Zayn also beat up the “Gingerbread Man” so badly that WWE is planning a funeral service of sorts for the Gingerbread Man on the May 8th edition of SmackDown.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, the proud Canadian Sami Zayn made it clear that perhaps he’s not a heel yet.
“I’ll disagree with your statement—I fully turned heel. I think I’m trying to play this one a little different. We’re kind of writing these reactions which are different week to week.
I had this idea for a slight character shift that would be a little outside the box and split the audience a little bit. Sometimes things don’t work out exactly how you envision it.”
“I Like Giving Fans A Choice” – Sami Zayn
As he continued to make his point about the type of character that he is, Sami Zayn spoke about wanting to evoke different emotions from the audience.
“I’m getting booed, but then I’m high-fiving fans on the way to the ring. There was this one week I got booed heavily, and then I stayed in the ring during the commercial break, and my match started, but during the break, when I was standing in the ring looking around, all these fans were waving and showing little hearts. I was like, what’s going on here?
To be fair, if you kick a mannequin gingerbread man below the belt, that might upset people because people want to have fun.”
In Zayn’s opinion, he hasn’t fully embraced the heel role yet because he still have fans who cheer for him and support him.
“I think this kind of polarizing thing—talking about my ride-or-die fans who haven’t turned their backs on me—I think there’s fun there. I like giving fans a choice, like you can be on either side of the fence. But we’ll see where things land, but I don’t think I fully embraced the dark side as you maybe put it.”
WWE Backlash takes place on Saturday, May 9th in Tampa. Here’s the lineup so far.
* WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu
* Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker
* Asuka vs. Iyo Sky
* United States Championship: Trick Williams (c) vs. Sami Zayn
* The Miz & Kit Wilson vs. Danhausen & ????
* John Cena appears
You can watch WWE Backlash, streaming live Saturday, May 9, at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on ESPN Plus in the United States and Netflix internationally.