Sami Zayn Discusses His Role in The Bloodline Saga, What His Career Would Look Like Without It

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE Undisputed Champion Sami Zayn spoke about his role in The Bloodline saga and what his career would look like without. Below are some highlights:

On Why His Character Worked Well in The Bloodline

“Well, that’s kind of what makes it work from the jump. That was in the conception of the idea; it’s so ridiculous, that’s part of the appeal of it. My intent in the beginning was more to be kind of like on the periphery, [but] it evolved, and that’s part of the beauty of it. When I say part of the skill set, part of why I loved it so much is the week-to-week adaptation. I had some ideas, and I had an overarching blueprint, which more or less kind of came to fruition, which starts here and ends in a championship match eventually down the road with Roman. That’s kind of the blueprint in your head, but some of the week-to-week stuff that you don’t account for, those are just gifts that fall into your lap, and then it’s playing with those gifts, and that’s that adaptability and the improvisational skills and the storytelling skills that I think are really what we do, or a crucial part of what we do, or a crucial part of being really good at what we do, is adapting to those things when they come to you, whether it’s in a match or whether it’s in a storyline.

“It’s like, I know this was the plan, but hang on just a sec. Now we’ve got this thing with Jey, and you got to run with it because it’s interesting, and you hadn’t accounted for it ahead of time. But now you’ve got this gift that fell from the heavens, and running with it. Sometimes that happens in matches, and sometimes it happens in promos, or a lot of times, what’s happened to me, especially most recently with this WWE title thing, is it’s happened in kind of overarching storytelling, where yeah, I know this wasn’t where we were going, but hang on a sec. This is really interesting, and we should probably elaborate on this.

“That’s what I mean about when you asked me earlier, what is it that I think was different? My answer was actually that it was more the fact that it was doing things the same. The same is just the mentality wherein you make whatever you’re doing so good, or stick out so much, that the logical thing to do is to follow up on it next week. If you’re given the gift, if you have this little kernel of something, and it gets to be on television. You’ve got to invest everything you’ve got into it to make that kernel pop.”

Sami Zayn on What His Career Would Look Like Without The Bloodline

“No idea. I can’t even fathom it. I don’t know, because it just is. So I can’t play what-ifs or hypotheticals. I don’t even know how to answer that because everything is such a domino effect in this company and in life, but in this company, it’s almost impossible to say what would have happened if X or if Y, these variables. I’m not the only one with these stories, but tons of people will tell you if this one thing hadn’t happened, my entire career, my entire life would be different, and sometimes it’s super small things. Sometimes it’s things that have nothing to do with you. I’ve told this story before, but the biggest break I ever had in my career, minus Bloodline and WWE stuff, what got me booked in the United States to begin with had nothing to do with me. It was because another wrestler from Canada called Sexy Eddie went to the States.

“I won’t get into the gory details here, but there are gory details because he got cut open and there was a bunch of blood, and he was just an insane showman, and he captured people’s imaginations in this one night where all of a sudden these people were like, who are these Canadian guys? Because of that, I got booked. So the biggest break in my career had nothing to do with me. It was because Sexy Eddie got cut open and had blood spewing out of his arm, but still decided to put on a show. If he doesn’t put on that show, I don’t know how my career would have gone. Maybe I’d still be here. Maybe I’d still be in this chair. Maybe I’d be WWE Champion. Maybe I wouldn’t. I have no idea. But there’s such a crazy domino effect that takes place that you can’t even begin to get your head around.”

The Bloodline storyline culminated in Sami Zayn turning on the group and fighting against Roman Reigns. Zayn challenged Roman Reigns for the title at WWE Elimination Chamber 2023, but Reigns was Victorious. However, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens later went on to beat The Usos for the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 23.

Sami Zayn will renew his rivalry with Roman Reigns this weekend at WWE Crown Jewel 2026. The two champions will face each other for the annual WWE Crown Jewel Championship.

WWE Crown Jewel 2026 takes place on Saturday, November 7. The event will be held at the Riyadh Season Stadium at King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It will air live on the ESPN App in the U.S. and on Netflix internationally.