8 WWE Busts Who Revived Their Careers
5. Sami Zayn
It is frankly astonishing how many years Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens' WWE careers were successful in spite of how they were booked. "Sneaking good stuff through" and "gaming the system" were phrases attached to both men, whether they were working with each other or not, and it was particularly true of Zayn when one of the era's very best babyfaces turned heel less than two years into his time on the main roster.
Zayn's work as a villain ages remarkably well, and just how far into the deluded persona he was prepared to go was ultimately his exit strategy for it too. The same Sami Zayn that was subjected to shooting on America and its general public from Raw's electric chair was also the one that was more entertaining as Shinsuke Nakamura's manager than 'The King Of Strong Style' was in his matches when they worked together. The same Sami Zayn that backdoored his way into an Intercontinental Championship run of his own was so remarkable putting together a match with Jonny Knoxville at WrestleMania 38 that he was dropped into Roman Reigns' Bloodline story with quite remarkable consequences.
The rest was very literally WWE history - with Zayn the key element the group needed to refresh and revive Roman's run, The Bloodline's dominance increased, overlapped with the lifetime Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn rivalry, created the perfect circumstances for a historic WrestleMania 39 double main event and set the table for the era-defining finishing of Cody Rhodes' story one year later.