Gewirtz heard that it was that storyline that led to Vince McMahon realizing what he had with Sami Zayn.
Several years ago at the 2021 WWE Survivor Series event, Vince McMahon arrived with a Cleopatra Egg that was worth a great deal of money.
This was included in the broadcast to promote the ‘Red Notice’ film, which stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and at the time, WWE was celebrating 25 years since Johnson’s debut for the company. Former WWE writer and current S.V.P. of Television for the Dwayne Johnson-owned Seven Bucks Productions, Brian Gewirtz, looked back on that storyline while on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
Gewirtz stated that the original creative was ‘much worse’ than what was presented on-screen. When himself and Johnson heard the original idea, they discussed it and decided that it needed to be changed. Gewirtz added that he heard it was Sami Zayn’s performance in the storyline that led to McMahon realizing what he had in Sami.
This is what I was told, at Survivor Series, not this past Survivor Series but the Survivor Series before, we were doing ‘Red Notice’ product integration in the pay-per-view and this thing, as far as there was like a magical, golden egg that if you recall, it was a much heavily reviled night of creative. Everybody hated the angle as far as this golden egg that Austin Theory found and Sami Zayn ratted him out and everything else like that. The original creative for that, won’t go into but just trust me, it was much, much, much, much worse… When I discussed it with Dwayne (Johnson), I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s gotta change’ and then I think Vince (McMahon) and the team came up with this egg thing, which most people watching it were, you know, didn’t like it for whatever reason, that’s fine. But I was told during those vignettes where Sami (Zayn) kind of stooged off Austin Theory and wanted him to be punished and then was put in a situation where, whatever the creative was but that was the turning point as far as Vince going, hey, this Sami is — I always liked him but — I think we should have a look at that egg angle now a little bit differently and perhaps give props to the golden, magical hundred million dollar egg because listen, talent always rises to the top and Sami is amazing and would have risen to the top anyway but, I just thought it was funny that yeah, it was those vignettes where Vince really took notice as far as Sami as a performer. I’m like, damn right.
In recent weeks, Zayn has been taking on The Bloodline alongside Cody Rhodes, who’ll be challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 39.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit The Bill Simmons Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
