Sami Zayn Recalls Triple H Telling Him He Was A “Slow Burn Guy”

Sami Zayn has reflected on something from earlier in his career as it relates to his current run of success in The Bloodline.

The year 2022 has been a great one for Sami Zayn in terms of becoming a bigger star in WWE. While he lost to a non-wrestler like Johnny Knoxville at WrestleMania 38 (it was a very entertaining match) and he hasn’t won the Intercontinental Title as he has done in the past, Zayn is a major player in WWE thanks to his role in The Bloodline.

As the “Honorary Uce” in The Bloodline group, Zayn has been getting huge reactions while standing beside Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso), Solo Sikoa and the Special Counsel, “Wise Man” Paul Heyman.

Survivor Series was headlined by the Men’s WarGames match with Zayn in the spotlight as the difference maker in that match. After Zayn’s best friend Kevin Owens hit Reigns with a Stunner in the WarGames match, Zayn stopped the referee’s count to show he was loyal to The Bloodline. After Owens got in Zayn’s face about it, Zayn hit Owens with a low blow followed by a Helluva Kick. Jey Uso hit a top rope Uso Splash on Owens to get the win for The Bloodline team. Zayn received hugs from the group, including a hug from Jey Uso, who didn’t like Zayn being in the group for several months.

Sami Zayn recently talked to Peter Rosenberg for the Cheap Heat podcast and shared a story about how WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque referred to Zayn as a “slow burn guy” during his NXT days from 2013 to 2015. A slow burn guy means somebody that you shouldn’t push in wrestling very quickly like Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Title in 2002 after five months for example. Triple H is now in charge of Zayn’s booking on the main roster, which has led to a lot of success for the talented Canadian.

“Ages ago, Hunter (Triple H) told me this once when he was in NXT. I forget exactly how he phrased it or why we were even talking about it. He said something along the lines of, ‘You’re a slow burn guy. You’re a slow build.’ I think he’s kind of right about that, even when I compare careers. Like Kevin (Owens) and I, when we would come up together, I felt like in a lot of places, Kevin would jump out at you a bit more, and they’re like, ‘Oh, this Kevin guy is great.’”

“Then it would always take a minute or two for them to kind of come around eventually, whether it was the fans or the independents, every time we’d go to a new independent territory or a new company or whatever, five, six months down the line, they’re like, ‘Oh, this act is really good, and it delivers every time.’ I think it just comes down to delivering consistently. It’s tough to say.”

As Zayn continued, he brought up Roman Reigns as an example of his point.

“For example, I don’t know if you could have plugged me into Roman’s spot, and I would have been as accepted as Roman. For me, that character arc, you need to kind of watch that progression, and then it becomes a thing of like, ‘Man, it’d been two years, three years, five years, six years. Man, this guy’s always delivering for the last six years.’”

“It’s like a slow, steady thing, and the only way to come through it is with consistency. Then being alongside Roman, where the level of investment is 100 always, from the audience and from the company and from all sides, it kind of put the pedal to the metal on that a little bit.”

Sami Zayn’s “dawgs” in The Bloodline, The Usos, will defend the Undisputed WWE Tag Team TItles tonight on Smackdown against Sheamus and Butch.