In 2019, WWE SmackDown moved to the FOX network, and with it came a new era of the brand split with more clearly defined, separate rosters and a clear step toward SmackDown being on equal, if not even greater footing than Raw. Alongside this transition came the announcement that Eric Bischoff had been hired as an executive producer for SmackDown, while Paul Heyman would take a lead role with Raw. While some have speculated that hiring the two highest profile promoters of the late 1990s—from WCW and ECW heads, respectively--was designed to create buzz at least as much as it was to enhance the product. Both men did have active, influential roles behind the scenes, short-lived as their tenures may have been. Both men's responsibilities included input on where Superstars like Sami Zayn would wind up. Wrestlers like Zayn, who were a bit lost in the shuffle at the time, had a lot at stake, and Bischoff has now offered some insight into what he and Heyman were thinking at the time.
Eric Bischoff Discusses Paul Heyman’s Views On Sami Zayn At The Time
Today, Sami Zayn is one of the hottest acts in wrestling. He has been an integral part of The Bloodline angle over the last year, which has included working closely on and off-screen with Paul Heyman. However, the way Eric Bischoff described it on the most recent episode of 83 Weeks, Heyman wasn’t enthusiastic about working with Zayn back in 2019.
Related: 10 Things We Learned From Eric Bischoff's 83 Weeks PodcastBischoff was clearly reluctant to comment at first and quick to clarify that no one disrespected Zayn as a person or a talent back in 2019 or now. Rather, Bischoff likened Zayn to a race horse, and explained that you could only speed up a slow horse to so much and he generally preferred with a “horse” that moved too quickly for its own good, because there was always the potential to rein them in to an appropriate pace. He described Zayn as fitting the latter category, in which he always had ideas to talk about and his own opinions, which were terrific qualities for creative collaboration but could also slow down someone like Heyman who had his own specific vision for the direction of his brand. As such, as Bischoff described it, Heyman didn’t speak poorly of Zayn at all in 2019, but rather made his intentions clear by pushing Bischoff toward taking on Zayn.
The Evolution Of Sami Zayn In WWE
A related topic that Eric Bischoff probed on 83 Weeks was that Sami Zayn enjoyed a highly respectable, well-compensated career as a “utility player” for his WWE main roster run up to 2022. While he had main evented in NXT, Zayn found himself mostly locked into the mid-card, first as a babyface, then as a heel since moving up in 2016 for a run that infamously included feuding with Johnny Knoxville headed into WrestleMania 38.
Bischoff went on to point out that Zayn may be a role model for younger talents in always staying engaged and always showing up to do his best work, even when he was in a much less featured role. Bischoff observed Zayn had positioned himself as an easy talent to push in a more prominent role when the time was right.
At the 2023 Elimination Chamber PPV, fans are expecting to feature a positively electric Montreal crowd to cheer Sami Zayn as he challenges Roman Reigns. It’s hard to imagine a time when anyone wouldn’t have wanted Zayn on their roster. Times change, though, and Zayn’s patience has paid off with a special moment in his career.
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