WWE: 5 Ways To Handle Sami Zayn Properly When He Returns

4. Face Turn

Look. Sami’s a great heel. I’d never have thought it myself, but I admit I was wrong. It’s incredible how all Sami’s most endearing traits become incredibly annoying when you turn them up to 11: his self-belief becomes smugness. His good cheer becomes condescension. Even his skanking develops a weirdly passive-aggressive edge – who knew ska could be so mean-spirited? He’s charismatic and a clever talker and it works.

But let’s be real here. It’s not why we love Sami. It’s not who Sami is.

Let’s go back in time to when Sami won the NXT Championship. The nexus of this particular story was Sami’s unwillingness to be cutthroat and ruthless in pursuit of his goals. No matter how much Neville goaded him, he refused to give in to his morals. He would do it the right way, or he would not do it at all.

He was so adamant of this that he staked his very career on it. It was this fierce, tenacious spirit which saw him become NXT’s very first crowd darling. And at NXT TakeOver R:Evolution, the man Neville accused of being ‘too nice’ to be champion fought with everything he had to prove him wrong.

If you’ve never seen that match, I cannot recommend it enough. Stop what you’re doing and watch it immediately. Something truly remarkable happens towards the end of the bout. Neville tries to attack Sami with the belt for a dirty victory, but things go awry for him and the belt ends up discarded in the ring. The ref goes down. Sami has the perfect opportunity to pick up the belt, deliver the finishing blow and grab the win. It’d be only fair, right? After all Neville has done to thwart his chances over and over? It would be justice, wouldn’t it?

Sami grabs the belt. The crowd immediately burst into wild paroxysms of denial. Surely he would never! And then something wonderful happens: the crowd forms one singular voice begging Sami not to do it, even if it costs him the win. It is not worth the dissolution of Sami’s strongly-held morals to see him win like this. You can almost hear Sami’s internal monologue as the crowd desperately chants No, No, No. Not like this.

A rollercoaster of emotions ensue: the sigh of relief as Sami discards the belt, the collective intake of horrified breath as Neville sweeps in, surely about to snatch victory from under Sami’s nose. The crowd has become a monolith, a collective of voices united in perfect accord. When Sami wins, is it utterly thunderous; a pure and beautiful joy shared by every man, woman and child in Full Sail.

This is the kind of crazy pure babyface power Sami Zayn wields when properly utilised. And it’s this power that WWE are wasting every time they send Sami out to cut a withering promo, or cheat his way to victory. They held the next Ricky Steamboat in their hands, and they squandered him. We can only hope it’s not too late to make amends.

Sami Zayn is a great heel, sure. But he’s a next-level babyface. And god knows WWE are in dire need of big-hearted heroes right now.