10 Things Paul Heyman may have planned for SummerSlam

#5 A featured role for Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn has a lot of tools to make him the kind of talent Paul Heyman would push.

One of the signature elements of ECW under Paul Heyman’s leadership was making the most of the raw talents available to him.

Heyman famously gave Steve Austin the latitude to cut worked shoot promos against Eric Bischoff. He also offered tailored showcases for limited performers to do what they did best, and only what they did best in front of a live audience.

It’s telling, too, that some of the best talents of the 1990s cut their teeth in ECW en route to WWE or WCW—guys like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, and Rob Van Dam. These special stars got the opportunity to ply their trade and start building a name, not least of all marking ECW as the platform that got them noticed on their way to bigger stages.

Sami Zayn is exactly the sort of talent who worked his way up through smaller promotions and has adapted to every context who probably would have thrived in ECW had he been around two decades earlier.

Moreover, his hard work and in ring savvy embody the qualities Heyman pushed in the “SmackDown Six” pushed at the top of the blue brand when Heyman was at the helm—a hungry Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Edge, and Chavo Guerrero.

With Heyman in a degree of control again, we may see Zayn get back on course. His expected match with Aleister Black could be the first step in that direction, be it in putting on a classic, or even in achieving an upset victory.