5 times WWE Superstars mentioned a rival company on live TV

#1. Sami Zayn - The AEW name-drop that stirred the pot backstage in WWE

Sami Zayn on the electric chair

Just two days after AEW's Double or Nothing PPV debut, Sami Zayn mentioned the promotion on WWE television. On May 27th, 2019, Sami Zayn had a segment called "The Electric Chair". In the segment, he did the unthinkable and mentioned AEW on WWE RAW, much to the surprise of the audience.

After an interview with Sportskeeda's own Rick Ucchino, we learned that it received an unfavorable reaction backstage. He revealed that it wasn't entirely "off the cuff", but justified why he thought he did the right thing:

"So it was right on everybody's mind. It was super, super fresh and I think they had just announced this TV deal. They had just announced that this wasn't just going to be a pay-per-view. This is going to be a competitor and all this sort of stuff. And they tell me that we're doing this segment where it's legitimately, you know, unplanned questions and anybody could ask anything. So at the time this was the number one topic in the wrestling world. So you kind of expected to be asked about it."

Sami Zayn has a fair argument, even if he was "chewed out" backstage in WWE. Unfortunately, that mention of AEW saw him lose his "Electric Chair" show.