Sami Zayn On If Saying 'AEW' On RAW Angered WWE Officials
Back in May Sami Zayn was part of an Electric Chair segment on Raw. Fans could ask anything they wanted but Zayn became frustrated with boring questions and ripped the crowd. He told them they could be asking about anything including his love life, if he was a good kisser or "even about AEW."
That was the first explicit mention of AEW on WWE programming and there's still some debate on if it was scripted or not. Zayn revisited that moment when he took part in a conference call and was asked about the segment.
Catch-Newz asked Zayn if he could return to that moment if he would repeat saying AEW, and if he took any heat from WWE backstage officials.
"No, no. It really was not a big story other than what was on the internet. At the end of the day, the segment was a small new segment that we were trying for people; an unscripted thing. I knew that if we say 'AEW' that was the way that people will talk about it," said Zayn. "That's exactly what happened. As you see, nothing really happened after I said that. It was done once, and nothing happened.
"Much more controversy on the internet on the subject, but it's important to have the people talking about it. It was a small segment for one time only, to have the people talking about it, that was the idea."
While the fans who asked the questions were real fans and not plants, their questions were screened beforehand. It appears Zayn's AEW mention was unscripted as Vince McMahon was reportedly furious afterwards. WWE's social media team also edited out the AEW mention on the segment clip that made its way to YouTube.