Brian Gewirtz Says Red Notice Angle Made Vince McMahon Take Notice of Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn has risen to the top of WWE, and Brian Gewirtz says it was in part due to his interaction with Austin Theory during the Red Notice cross-promotional angle. Gewirtz appeared on the Bill Simmons Podcast and during the discussion, he talked about how the promotional angle — which saw one of the golden Cleopatra Eggs from the Rock’s Netflix action comedy make its way onto WWE TV, caused Vince McMahon to take more notice of Zayn. You can see some highlights below, per Wrestling Inc:

On Zayn’s involvement in the angle: “I think Vince and team came up with this egg thing and most people watching it didn’t like it for whatever reason. And that’s fine but I was told that during those vignettes where Sami kind of stooged off Austin Theory and wanted him to be punished and was put in a situation where whatever the creative was, that was the turning point.”

On McMahon taking of Zayn because of it: “As far as Vince going ‘hey, this Sami is… I’ve always liked him but I think we should look at that egg angle a little bit differently.’ Talent always rises to the top, and Sami is amazing and would’ve risen to the top anyway but I just thought it was funny that it was those vignettes where Vince really took notice as far as Sami as a performer.”