12 Wrestlers WWE Must Build Their Future Around

8. Sami Zayn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ-nZMhQNQg A story about Sami Zayn, or as he was known in the indies for years, "El Generico". For what must have seemed like a good idea at the time, El Generico was billed as a masked luchador from Tijuana, Mexico, despite the fact that anybody with a working pair of eyes can see that the man is a pasty white, ginger Canadian. But if anyone tried to mention this to him, all you'd get is "No hablo ingles" and some other broken Spanish. He wrestled for various promotions around Canada, the U.S. and Japan, and when the signing of his WWE contract was nigh, he was appearing for BattleWar (a Canadian promotion in his home province of Quebec) where he was given a send off of the kind retiring wrestlers usually receive. He then took the mic and gave a speech amid chants of "Ole!", "We Will Miss You" and "Muchos Gracias!" (all the time apologising because "English is difficult for me") He thanked everyone for their support, pleaded with them to continue their support for the promotion and then said "I've had mystery in my career, you don't know who I am, you don't know my face, so I think you deserve the truth, so here it is.... my name, my real name, is El Generico, I come from Tijuana Mexico, and the rumours you've heard are true, I'm going back to Mexico to take care of my orphan children" The moral of the story is, even when its a total and obvious joke, he stayed true to the kayfabe of his character, and he respects the industry. And that is something that Vince McMahon loves. Fast forward to his time in NXT, he appears, sans mask, under the name Sami Zayn. And while El Generico was very good at comedy without words, you'd think all that time without speaking would hurt his mic skills and ability to get over with the audience. Not a bit of it, he is a firm crowd favourite. He still wrestles his high flying lucha libre style, although the WWE has eliminated some of his more extreme moves (though I've got to be honest, I'm not sorry that he no longer does the turnbuckle brainbuster. That move was scary to watch every single time) he still pulls off fantastic matches. His 2 out of 3 falls match against Antonio Cesaro in August of last year in particular made a lot of noise among wrestling fans. Another advantage is his international appeal; he's Canadian, so Canada loves him, he speaks French, so France and other parts of Canada love him, Mexico love him for his time as El Generico, and he's of Syrian descent and even speaks Arabic for that all important middle-eastern market. Backstage is reported to be very high on Zayn, so expect him to make his debut by early 2015, and don't expect him to hang around in the midcard for long