Sami Zayn Says Early Saudi Arabia Shows Were Not ‘WWE-Ish’

Sami Zayn has been part of WWE for over a decade now and has always managed to win the hearts of fans and peers alike thanks to his excellent character work and willingness to make any gimmick work. Zayn and Kevin Owens also defeated Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa at Night Of Champions after some unexpected, but that wasn’t all that fans were talking about during Zayn’s trip to Saudi Arabia. Now it appears Zayn stated that the earlier WWE Saudi Arabian shows were not ‘WWE-ish.’

Back in 2018, WWE started their controversial program with Saudi Arabia and so far has produced quite a few Premium Live Events. In the following years, Sami Zayn had been kept off of WWE’s events in Saudi Arabia, due to his Syrian heritage. Even Kevin Owens had requested to be left off any Saudi Arabian events.

Thankfully, everything went fine for Sami Zayn as he competed in Saudi Arabia without any problem. That said, Zayn was still worried fans would reject him in Saudi Arabia, but got a lot of love nonetheless.

Speaking to Alex McCarthy of Inside The Ropes, Sami Zayn talked about his trip to Saudi Arabia during Night Of Champions and stated that it was a seamless affair, unlike previous Saudi Arabia shows.

That was a pretty big deal for me, for a number of reasons. That whole trip was really remarkable. I guess, on some level, even as a child, being an Arab or Muslim growing up, never really seeing a positive representation of that in media. I always just assumed if I ever got to WWE that I would have to play a terrorist — I don’t know if you can use that, but you know what I’m saying — that was the perception and portrayal of Arabs and Muslims on television, never mind WWE, just in media. It was always sort of a thing in the back of my head, ‘Man, I’d love to change that one day.’ To be able to really embrace that.

The fact that even a major premium live event like that was coming and it wasn’t just like…those early Saudi Arabia shows felt very not WWE-ish. ‘Here is a WWE show taking place somewhere else,’ and we happened to be able to watch it. Now, that was a seamless part of the show. It was a progression in the story with the Bloodline and everything else, and it just happened to be in Saudi Arabia. For that to converge with this wonderful story that I’ve been lucky enough to be part of for the last year, for that to converge with this moment of me being able to come before my people and be there and have that sort of return, under those circumstances, was very special.”

We’ll have to see what’s next in store for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, as fans are excited to see what WWE will have planned after what transpired with The Bloodline.

What’s your view on what Sami Zayn said? Are you glad he was able to compete in Saudi Arabia? Let us know in the comments!