Road Dogg Had Unique WWE Pitch For Multi-Brand Sami Zayn Storyline

Sami Zayn has played many parts in his WWE career, from white meat babyface "NXT" Champion to his current role as the "Honorary Uce" of The Bloodline. Before he came to WWE, however, he was El Generico, a masked "luchador" who never spoke. The differences between Sami Zayn and El Generico are so dramatic that both Zayn and Kevin Owens — who, as Kevin Steen, was Generico's tag team partner, winning championship gold by his side in promotions like Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla — have a longtime habit of denying that Zayn and Generico are the same person. At one point, this dichotomy caught the attention of WWE Hall of Famer "Road Dogg" Brian James, who served at one point as head writer for "WWE SmackDown", and who recently discussed an idea he threw out regarding Zayn and his indie alter ago.

"I pitched the idea of trying to do [a wrestler playing two characters] with Sami Zayn and El Generico, on one on each show [WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown]," James said while on the "Oh...You Didn't Know" podcast. "I still think that would be awesome, but, but you have to play it out, like, 'No, it's not him' ... It is like a stretch of the imagination to ask you to buy it, but it's also fun."

Of course, the idea went nowhere, and El Generico has never been seen in a WWE ring. But that doesn't mean the notion of having a wrestler very obviously play two different characters, while denying it the entire time, doesn't have legs.

"It just worked with Ezekiel!" James laughed.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Oh...You Didn't Know" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.