Sami Zayn’s role as a manager is vital to WWE

In his transition from WWE wrestler to becoming a WWE manager for the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and Mojo Rawley, Sami Zayn has become vital to the company.

A great wrestling manager is, essentially, a promoter. A manager’s goal is to strengthen the wrestler they are managing. During the Golden Era of the 1980’s, WWE was full of managers. These managers would act as a mouthpiece for wrestlers who were not able to sell fans, verbally, on spending a ticket to watch them wrestle.

Sensational Sherri, for example, was instrumental in the growth of Shawn Michaels. Bobby Heenan was the mouthpiece that helped draw a record crowd for WrestleMania 3. Sunny added credibility to several different wrestlers in the mid-1990s. And of course, Brock Lesnar is one dimensional on the mic without Paul Heyman by his side.

This is also the case with a manager such as Zelina Vega. Andrade’s skill is in the ring and not on the microphone. Vega is responsible for making Andrade relevant in the eyes of the fans.

WWE has the strongest roster of in-ring talent in the company’s history. Unfortunately, not everyone on that roster can verbally sell pay-per-views and matches to audiences like the wrestlers of a previous era.

Countless wrestlers can put on a 15 minute match on RAW that would be considered a classic in any era, but few can cut a promo like the men and women that came before them.

Since his debut in WWE, Sami Zayn has been one of the more entertaining characters on television.

His matches in NXT against the likes of Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Shinsuke Nakamura helped generate early buzz for NXT, but on the WWE main roster, Zayn never achieved a high level of success as a professional wrestler. Every time his career seemed to get back on track, he was dealt a bad hand with injuries and inconsistent booking.

After failing to win this year’s King of the Ring tournament, Zayn appeared on SmackDown aligning himself with Shinsuke Nakamura. This was a golden opportunity for Zayn to help enhance the character of the Intercontinental Champion.

So far, Zayn has been an incredible mouthpiece to The King of Strong Style, allowing his character to finally resonate with fans.

In New Japan Pro Wrestling, Nakamura’s strength was never his ability to cut promos; it was his ability to connect to fans with his charisma. That buzz carried over to WWE where he instantly became one of the most fascinating wrestlers in the company.

This change in direction for Nakamura exposed an issue that WWE faced with Nakamura. He lacked the ability to verbally connect with fans how a traditional villain does, hence why his initial ascent into becoming a heel fell flat and fans never wanted to boo Nakamura.

This is where a manager/liberator like Sami Zayn has been so perfect for Nakamura. Zayn has shown to be an excellent mouth piece for The King of Strong Style, who has experienced a career jolt thanks to Zayn as his manager.

Finally, we are learning more about Nakamura through Zayn. It has been a decision that has paid off for the Intercontinental Champion and now, could pay off for Zayn’s new client, Mojo Rawley.

On a recent episode of Monday Night RAW, Zayn announced that he will now be managing the often maligned Mojo Rawley.  Rawley is another wrestler who has all the tools needed to be a successful professional wrestler, but has struggled to connect with the crowd.

In his alignment with Nakamura and Mojo Rawley, Zayn is showing fans the value of a manager. Due to his ability to communicate with a fan base, he has advanced their careers of certain wrestlers.

In a perfect world, there would be more managers available to help wrestlers emotionally connect with fans. This may change as managers like Sami Zayn and Zelina Vega currently present a stronger value to the product.

For now, fans have a reason to be emotionally interested in wrestlers like Shinsuke Nakamura and Mojo Rawley. It is hard to assign credit to anyone else for that except Sami Zayn.