The BEST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2026)
4. 2023 | Sami Zayn Has Had Enough
When people say that Sami Zayn elevated or even outright saved the Bloodline, there’s a bit of the ulterior motive to it, a bit of covert anti-WWE sentiment - even though WWE scripted the entire thing from start to finish. Zayn was an indie God who knew how to really do this wrestling thing. His babyface genius made that office favourite psy-op Roman Reigns feel like an actual heel.
But Sami Zayn saved the Bloodline.
Across much of 2021, the Usos simply interfered in Roman’s matches in between televised reprimands. The act was good, but the plotting was either looped or nonexistent. Zayn added both entertainment value and an emotional texture. His improvised comedy wasn’t just genuinely funny in and of itself; it fuelled an unbearable sense of dread because you knew that Roman was going to one day crush him. You loved them together, but they were fated to implode. Violently.
Roman was great as the overbearing, sinister arsehole because Sami was so inordinately sympathetic. Even in the segment in which Sami was made an honorary Uso, the Bloodline ripped the t-shirt from his frame in such a dehumanising, nasty way. Roman was using him. The fans needed Sami to see that, but they also enjoyed a more loose Roman Reigns - which in turn made it feel more like a betrayal when Roman continued to look down at him.
At the 2023 Royal Rumble, Zayn realised that loyalty was more important to him than acceptance. When the Bloodline threatened to destroy his old friend Kevin Owens with a steel chair, he refused. The pop he summoned when attacking Roman himself was one of the loudest moments in WWE history. An Attitude Era noise in a lavish modern stadium setting: this was the second most iconic moment of Paul Levesque’s main roster tenure.
After…