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On a recent edition of the “Out of Character” podcast, Sami Zayn discussed his storyline with The Bloodline, how he came up with the idea to be involved with Roman Reigns’ faction, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On if he expected the story to play out as it did: “No, not at that exact time. So the idea for me to do stuff with The Bloodline, I got that idea six months before 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. 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.
“Then it sparked this idea of, ‘Man, what could we do?’ And I had the whole broad picture and 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 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 exceeded. There were so many gifts that land in your lap when you’re doing a story that long.
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 great chemistry with all of us as performers, but some of those things you just could not have planned.”
On being part of the Bloodline storyline: “What a treat to be able to tell a story that deep and layered with that amount of time to have it play out over almost a year. 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.”