WWE Royal Rumble 2017: 10 Potential Dark Horses
4. Sami Zayn
It’s been an up and down 2016 for Sami Zayn. The former NXT Champion got a great reaction as he arrived to reignite his feud with Kevin Owens in this year’s Rumble, but his career stalled badly after beating KO at Battleground. He has been spinning his wheels ever since, and while his current feud with Braun Strowman plays well to his underdog character, Sami has been given few opportunities to advance his position.
Widely regarded as WWE’s next top babyface, there’s a strong chance WWE are trying to recreate Daniel Bryan’s rise with Sami. The duo share a number of similarities, and in having Zayn lose match after match, there’s every chance WWE are trying to build a “Yes! Movement” style upswing in support. If those are the intentions, however, then it’s not working: Sami’s crowd reactions are noticeably quieter than they were at the start of the year, and he has plenty of lost ground to make up.
If WWE have designs of ever inserting Zayn into the title hunt, the Royal Rumble would be a perfect jump-off point. His victory would go over huge with the crowd, and he’d immediately be established as his brand’s most popular babyface, particularly given Seth Rollins and (especially) Roman Reigns’ unlikable face characters. Sami would make a tremendous underdog foil for any heel champion at WrestleMania, whoever that may be.