During the Knoxville program is when Zayn jumped on Reigns’ radar.
With Roman Reigns and The Bloodline being cover stars of the WWE 2K25 video game, they are making the media rounds and one of Reigns’ stops was a chat with Shakiel Mahjouri.
Sami Zayn’s inclusion into The Bloodline was brought up and it started with Reigns admiring Zayn’s work with Johnny Knoxville. The program between Zayn and Knoxville led to a match between the two at WrestleMania 38 that featured members of the ‘Jackass’ cast.
Yeah, I’ll take full responsibility for Sami (Zayn being in The Bloodline). He was doing whatever he was doing with Jackass and I just admired the work because it’s not easy to do what we do when you’re across from a veteran, professional, someone who’s been in this ring for a long time. But to do it with people that don’t necessarily know what they’re doing and a bunch of ‘em, you know, whole Jackass crew, and just the way he made that work, I just saw something completely different than what we were doing. We were extremely successful, we were all champions at the time and to me, I just was like, ‘Man, that’s a personality that I can really bounce off and that I can really just show a few different layers of what I can have and my personality and then I think I can also elevate him because this is a veteran performer.’ This guy’s been around, he’s a journeyman. He’s been around for a long time. So I knew that he had, not only the talent, but the experience to be able to work in the main event, and I was right. He proved to be a great asset for The Bloodline, and he helped us but we helped him greatly so, and that’s how it works. That’s a true partnership, right? Where everybody benefits and that’s why you’ve seen him come back in his reunion. We could have maybe done it a different way but, Sami’s such a special performer and such a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes that you just gotta, you know — but that’s because he cares. God bless The Wiseman for having to deal with him all the time. But honestly, it’s on me because I saw it, I knew it, I felt it. I knew that once you put me and him in a backstage together, it was gonna be gold and it ended up taking him a lot longer to get to that point but once we did, I believe we’re in Montreal — I think we were in Canada and when he finally got in the office or in the locker room with me and it was magic, you know? And it was one of those, I think, one and done… It was probably live to be honest so, we just knew from there, that chemistry was gonna be great and the proof is in the pudding.
Zayn and Reigns united in November for Survivor Series: WarGames. Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso defeated Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, Bronson Reed and Tanga Loa in the main event of the Premium Live Event.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Shakiel Mahjouri with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
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