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Sami Zayn Responds To Rare Praise From Jim Cornette

By John Canton • Published 7th November 2022
sami zayn jey uso wwe smackdown bloodline

Sami Zayn is getting praise in a lot of places of late, even from unlikely people like Jim Cornette, who said he is feeling “Ucey” lately!

As one of the members of The Bloodline, Sami Zayn gets a lot of screen time. He has gone from being a bit of a laughingstock that peddles things like conspiracy theories to one of the guys that gets the loudest reactions on most WWE shows.

Jim Cornette is known for being a tough critic of modern-day pro wrestling. Cornette also worked for Ring of Honor when Zayn performed as El Generico with a mask on his face. Prior to WWE’s current Bloodline storyline, Cornette maintained his tough stance toward Zayn. However, the legendary wrestling manager has softened those feelings a bit because Cornette has enjoyed Sami’s performances of late

In late September after Zayn was given the “Honorary Uce” shirt by The Bloodline’s leader Roman Reigns, Cornette said this:

“Heyman is tremendous, the inflection, the verbal capacity, the expressions, oh, my God. And Sami Zayn was perfect in this, they did a long tease about how now that they had Solo it looked like they were going to kick Sami out of the group. Even to the point of Reigns saying ‘Take that Bloodline shirt off. I don’t want to see you wearing that again.’ And Sami’s facial expressions and the ‘homina homina’ in his voice and his attitude.”

On the October 28th edition of Smackdown, there was a memorable segment featuring The Bloodline where Jey Uso yelled about how he didn’t care about what the Tribal Chief (Reigns) thought, so Sami tried to diffuse the situation by saying that Jey wasn’t “feeling Ucey.” That led to Reigns laughing, then Jey laughed as well and Jimmy Uso literally covered his mouth to prevent himself from laughing.

Cornette gave a lengthy breakdown of the laughing segment and praised Zayn again for it.

“You see Roman’s face react and the place blows at the same time because they know what the f*ck he’s just done and they start chanting, you f*cked up. You f*cked up. I would have to think the Fox network at some point may say something to them because last time I checked, they were technically in violation of federal communications commission requirements there. And if anybody wanted to press it, they would be subject to a heavy fine for broadcasting the word f*ck over and over on network television. But nevertheless, the people went crazy and Sami then, as Roman gets in Jey’s face, Sami tries to calm Roman down, and that’s when he hit the line. ‘You know, Jey has been going through a lot he just, he hasn’t been feeling very ucey.’ And now you see, he’s cracked Reigns and Jey, and now Jey, who’s already [laughing] because Roman’s having fun with this, and Jey was already a little bit when Sami was talking before but now he’s not feeling very ucey. And the people laughed, I’ve been in that position when the people in the building laugh, it’s contagious. And you got your friends there and you and you get the giggles we get the giggles every once in a while here on the program. Not today we haven’t.”

“Roman and Jey were trying and Jey covered his mouth up like he’s looking down, you know like he’s, you know, fighting with his inner demons. And then finally at one point, Roman puts his arm around him and said ‘Now look if you can’t find your inner ucey again…’ he tries, Jey tries to turn away from the camera. He puts his hand over his face. And Roman said no, no, no, come on back here, come on back here. When he’s doing that Roman sounds like The Rock talking, personally just talking to him. He has that, not even, the same kind of tone in his voice but same kind of inflection or delivery or whatever what I’m trying to say. But anyway, Roman says if you can’t find your inner ucey again, we’re going to make Sami Zayn, a full-blown Uso. So and then Sami Uso and the people start chanting, and f*cking Jey is dying. And it just what a segment these guys, they’ve, you can tell they’ve all worked on this together because it’s not just the writers giving them sh*t. They’re all in on it. They’re working together with it, they’re coming up with some good sh*t. And people want to know what’s going to happen next. And sooner or later Sami Zayn will be a huge babyface and potentially even be in a main event against Roman Reigns in some shape or form. But that was a heck of a segment.”

On Twitter, Zayn saw a quote from the @WrestlingNewsCo account with a Cornette quote:

“Oh, I’ve been feeling Ucey. Let me tell you something. I never thought that I would say this. But I think now Sami Zayn is my favorite person to watch on television. El Generico certainly wasn’t but Sami Zayn is incredible.”

Zayn replied with this: “My…dawg?”

Cornette saw it and retweeted it.

Zayn and the rest of his allies in The Bloodline are on the WWE Survivor Series – WarGames poster together, which could mean they are in the WarGames match, but that hasn’t been announced yet. Survivor Series takes place on November 26th in Boston.