Well, it finally happened. As it was always going to happen. As it was meant to happen.
As WINC’s resident French-Canadian superfan, I was obviously hoping for a couple different results this past Saturday at Royal Rumble. However, while I may not be getting Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, it looks right now like I’m at least getting Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at WrestleMania, and this time they’re even in their proper alignments! Can’t really complain, all things considered. And by “can’t really complain” I mean “Kevin Owens hit a package piledriver on Sami Zayn for the first time since December 2012 and you expected me to not love it?”
There will be plenty of time to analyze this latest incarnation of Sami vs. Kevin and figure out where it fits within the tapestry they’ve been weaving together since 2003, so for now I just want to focus on what happened Monday night. WWE actually did a really good job of foreshadowing the turn — sure, it was inevitable after Zayn failed to help Owens win the WWE title at the Rumble, but the set-up throughout the episode was brilliant. We had the backstage moment between Sami and Jey Uso, which reinforced Sami as a good person who’s genuinely happy for his friend. Then we had Seth Rollins projecting his hatred of CM Punk onto Sami, supporting Sami on the surface while actually manipulating him into making Rollins’ road to the title easier — just like Kevin has been doing. And finally, we had Zayn losing yet another close match against the upper echelon of WWE talent and accepting a handshake from Punk afterward, which may have been the worst thing he could have done from Owens’ perspective.
Sami is a good person, even when it’s inconvenient and even when it’s not helping him win titles. Yes, he had a lengthy heel run, but it wasn’t a successful one — Sami was treated as a joke the whole time. He didn’t find success until he became a fan favorite again. Owens (and also Rollins, actually) has always seen more success as a heel; he’s won his world titles as a heel. Kevin hates Sami because he cared more about his morals than their friendship at Royal Rumble, but more broadly, he hates Sami because Sami thrives on adversity, while Kevin buckles beneath it. Sami took another loss to another top star, keeping him out of another world title match, and he still shook the guy’s hand afterward because he’s Sami Zayn. He’s too strong for that.
Kevin Owens knows that indomitability, that incorruptibility, all too well, which is why he had to try and stamp it out with the same move he used the last time he tried to stamp it out, back when one of them wrestled under their real name and the other hid their identity beneath a mask.
Yeah, you might say I’m a little bit hype for this. Even if it should be for the WWE Championship.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
