10 Sami Zayn WWE matches to watch instead of Super ShowDown
By Bassam Kaado
9. Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville (NXT Episode 249 – November 13, 2014)
Sami Zayn had missed out on an opportunity to become the number 1 contender for the NXT Championship. His win to loss ratio was suffering when it came to matches with huge implications, leading someone to say he couldn’t win the big one. This caused Zayn to journey on what he called his “Road to Redemption.”
Week after week, he had built up a winning streak to eventually come face-to-face with the NXT champion, Adrian Neville (yes, a lot of people still had first names). The two have been friends, dating to before they both joined NXT, and now faced off as competitors with high stakes.
The two put on a great match. Zayn was focused, and the story showed this as he started off strong against the champion, showing off his technical prowess with a beautiful exchange chain wrestling.
The two wrestlers showed through the match that they had scouted each other greatly, with an exchange of mind games, as Neville was not used to being outpaced and not having the fans in his corner. The champion recovered, and the two go on to trade sequence after sequence.
The ending was one of controversy, when Neville appears to have injured his knee after missing his finisher, The Red Arrow. He is clearly in pain, and the referee made a the X signal with his arms, something used to indicate a real life injury.
Sami goes to check on his friend, but he is rolled up by Neville for the 3 count. Zayn is stunned, and Neville continues to play up the knee injury, having retained his title.
Grade: 4.5
8. Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens (WWE Payback – May 1, 2016)
What was considered to be the ending of a two year long feud (that didn’t come until a few months later, we’ll get to that), Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens put on a clinic that was driven by a story dating back to 2014, when Owens betrayed his best friend of 14 years.
Zayn started off in a fury and dominated early and often, frustrating Owens. The two exchanged everything you can think of. They really dug into their arsenal of moves, and Owens really displayed how amazing of a heel he really is. We even got to see two Blue Thunder Bombs! Get excited y’all!
A thing that I really appreciated was the two made an effort to protect each other’s finishers. Every time Owens went for a powerbomb, Zayn did everything in his power to counter it. This added to how impactful the ending was, when we had to swallow a bitter pill and watch Owens hit the Pop-Up Powerbomb for the 1-2-3.