Ex-WWE Boss Vince McMahon Said NO To This Unique Sami Zayn Idea
One of SmackDown's writers pitched an...interesting plan for WWE's Sami Zayn.
Sami Zayn almost appeared on Raw and SmackDown as two different characters.
WWE legend Road Dogg revealed, via his podcast, that he pitched the idea to Vince McMahon during a stint as one of SmackDown's head writers - that, for reference, would place this somewhere between 2016-2019, but it didn't appeal to the then-boss.
McMahon didn't like the thought of presenting Sami as one thing on SmackDown and his old ROH personal El Generico over on the flagship. Yes, that's right. Roadie suggested that Zayn double up and bring his old masked character to WWE for a whirl.
Vince said no, and he wouldn't budge.
WWE rarely mentioned El Generico at all until recently. Sami revisited the guise during his sit-down with Steve Austin on 'Broken Skull Sessions', and Michael Cole mentioned it live on air during a recent episode of SmackDown.
It's likely the latter wouldn't have been green-lit had McMahon still been in charge of company affairs though. Road Dogg knew it was a long shot, but he thought fans (and Zayn himself) would get a kick out of seeing him pull double duty.
Y'know, kinda like a modern-day version of Mick Foley.