Jack-Hammer
05-29-2019, 04:42 AM
I think it's fair to say that Sami Zayn actually mentioning AEW on Raw this past Monday caught pretty much everyone by surprise. The live crowd gave a bit of a collective gasp and a small "AEW" chant started and lasted for 5 or 6 seconds.
According to Dave Meltzer, the name drop was scripted into the segment while Brian Alvarez states that it wasn't. Alvarez has stated that some people have told Meltzer that it was scripted but that a greater number of people have told him that it wasn't and that Vince was furious. Also, now you've got Vince Russo fanning the conspiracy theory flames by stating that WWE and AEW are "in bed together" as WWE would never mention AEW on the air unless there was some sort of arrangement between the two.
WWE itself has muddied the waters a bit with its own actions. There's a 15 second time delay on WWE television and they could have edited out Zayn's mention of AEW, just as they edit out the bigger swear words that the wrestlers sometimes say during their matches. However, WWE did edit out that part when Raw was uploaded to YouTube, according to reports.
There are also others who don't believe it was scripted and that Sami Zayn did it in the hopes of being released by WWE. This one has the least validity to me, which says a lot, as Vince doesn't just release people these days unless he feels they have absolutely nothing whatsoever to offer the competition, such as Tye Dillinger. If Zayn went into business for himself, then Vince will probably use the rest of Zayn's contract to make his life miserable by trying to embarrass him in various idiotic segments that nobody but Vince himself finds amusing or burying him so deep that he'll be even less prominent than he is now in terms of success, at least success beyond being on TV each week.
According to Dave Meltzer, the name drop was scripted into the segment while Brian Alvarez states that it wasn't. Alvarez has stated that some people have told Meltzer that it was scripted but that a greater number of people have told him that it wasn't and that Vince was furious. Also, now you've got Vince Russo fanning the conspiracy theory flames by stating that WWE and AEW are "in bed together" as WWE would never mention AEW on the air unless there was some sort of arrangement between the two.
WWE itself has muddied the waters a bit with its own actions. There's a 15 second time delay on WWE television and they could have edited out Zayn's mention of AEW, just as they edit out the bigger swear words that the wrestlers sometimes say during their matches. However, WWE did edit out that part when Raw was uploaded to YouTube, according to reports.
There are also others who don't believe it was scripted and that Sami Zayn did it in the hopes of being released by WWE. This one has the least validity to me, which says a lot, as Vince doesn't just release people these days unless he feels they have absolutely nothing whatsoever to offer the competition, such as Tye Dillinger. If Zayn went into business for himself, then Vince will probably use the rest of Zayn's contract to make his life miserable by trying to embarrass him in various idiotic segments that nobody but Vince himself finds amusing or burying him so deep that he'll be even less prominent than he is now in terms of success, at least success beyond being on TV each week.