The Forbidden Lore Of El Generico

While Generico’s repertoire made for the ultimate ‘Top 10 Moves Of’ YouTube compilation vid, he endures as an all-time babyface great through his genius grasp on the emotional principles of the role.

Generico was tall and skinny. He’s still great as Sami Zayn - the true artists never lose their emotional connection with the crowd - but El Generico was an incredible big bumper. Unlike many of his peers, he wasn’t fixated on crisp perfection. He used his natural gangliness to make his bumps look and feel all the more devastating.

Generico was also incredible at selling moves like he was in some bombastic cinematic death scene. To get a sense of Generico’s brilliance, watch his limbs. They fly everywhere whenever he eats a move. You can sense the pain coursing through every last nerve in his body. Yes, he pioneered the Brainbustaaah! - but his deep arm drag was as beautifully simple as Ricky Steamboat’s, in the sense that he reached into it with everything he had.

Beyond the physical dimension of his work, Generico, who of course was a fake luchador, nonetheless shared the gift, the skill, to emote behind the mask. The exhaustion, the fire, the ability to convey enduring spirit: Generico was a wrestler whose face you could not see, but whose heart was never in question. His sense of pacing was immaculate, too. The way he’d register the sprint into his Helluva kick finish, drawing a hopeful gasp from the crowd, was brilliant.

Sami Zayn’s wrestling trajectory is reduced to this: he was a coast-to-coast U.S. indie sensation after escaping Canada, and before finding stardom as a future WWE Hall of Famer. And this is mostly correct.

His work alongside and against Kevin Steen was legendary, standing out as transgressive and barbaric even a few short years after Samoa Joe Vs. Necro Butcher happened. The Bloodline Saga spanned years. This was WWE’s take on the sprawling, never-ending Elite saga that preceded it. While Steen Vs. Generico wasn’t the first pro wrestling rivalry to span multiple years and promotions, the sheer extent of the symbiotic relationship broke new ground for the medium.

Sami has recently revealed that he believes the Briscoes are the best tag team ever, and he played a role in shaping their legacy; the September 15, 2007 ROH ‘Man Up’ Ladder War between Steenerico and Jay and Mark was one of the very best and most unhinged offerings in the history of the genre. Generico’s work in PWG was even more lauded. The range of the promotion was a better fit for his seamless ability to play never-say-die and endearingly silly.