Sami Zayn Talks Layers Of WWE's Bloodline Story, Chemistry With Roman Reigns

During a recent appearance on "Out of Character," Sami Zayn reflected on his time in The Bloodline. When asked if he could've imagined the storyline playing out the way it did, Zayn explained why he didn't at first.

"No, not at that exact time," Zayn said. "So the idea for me to do stuff with The Bloodline, I got that idea six months prior to that Johnny Knoxville match. It just didn't look like it was going to happen. But in my head, the way I had it mapped out — and not to say that the whole story and everything you saw on television was all my brainchild — but I did have this idea and it was all sparked by seeing an interview that Roman Reigns did with Ariel Helwani where he said he was a fan of my work and he'd like to do something with me one day."

Zayn continued, "Then it sparked this idea of, 'Man, what could we do?' And I had the whole broad picture and I knew that if we could ever actually do this and see it through, I knew that that could be conceivably where it ends up if it's done right. But that's just an idea in your head and those ideas never come to fruition. Certainly, if they do, they're a totally mangled version of it and you get a piece of it or it's like a month-long or whatever. Whatever vision I had in my head, it actually exceeded."

"There were so many gifts that land in your lap when you're doing a story that long," Zayn explained. "Things you didn't count on that take it to a whole other level. In the case of The Bloodline, a lot of it was stuff you couldn't plan. Like some of the interactions with Jimmy and Jey and just the chemistry on screen as well especially with those two and with Roman. There's just a great chemistry with all of us as performers, but some of those things you just could not have planned."

Zayn then reflected on his first backstage "WWE SmackDown" segment with Reigns last year and how that revealed that Reigns' character does things that fans don't expect. There were other twists and turns with character dynamics that kept fans guessing as to whether Reigns would accept Zayn, who would turn on who first, and more.

"What a treat to be able to tell a story that deep and that layered with that amount of time to have it play out over almost a year," Zayn said. "And on top of it, it's with the person that the audience has the highest investment in the whole company, in the whole industry in the last decade. So everything you're doing, they're paying attention and caring about. Then on top of it, you're doing compelling things, so they're two or three times as interested as they normally would be."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Out of Character" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.