10 Creative Triumphs Of WWE’s PG Era
4. Sami Zayn's NXT Arc
While clearly inspired by Daniel Bryan, Sami Zayn's march to the NXT Title gets the nod here because it was crafted with skill and purpose, as opposed to spite and backtracking.
Zayn was positioned as a nearly-man in NXT from the jump, and it made sense; he was a ridiculously gifted bumper and a naturally sympathetic figure. A fantastic series of matches with Cesaro, with their impossible feats of physiology and searing drama, propelled both Zayn and the NXT brand itself to cult favourite status. His trajectory was basic, a wrestling update on a few of the seven stories - but the balance required precision. Book an underdog to lose too often, as is sadly happening now, and the plot becomes fatalistic. The protagonist becomes a loser. Rush through the beats and they don't resonate, as TNA discovered when they cynically borrowed from the Bryan arc when crowning Eric Young as their own bearded B+ player.
Zayn lost at precisely the right times. It never felt manipulative nor lazy. He earned the trust of and his bond with the audience. He even flirted with succumbing to his own dark side, instead of overcoming Neville's Gollum-like monster, but in a dramatic psychological classic at TakeOver: R Evolution, the arc was completed with a genuinely uplifting title triumph.