{"id":216204,"date":"2026-05-08T00:15:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=216204"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:57:30","slug":"sami-zayn-denies-that-hes-turned-heel-says-his-story-could-go-in-a-number-of-different-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/08\/sami-zayn-denies-that-hes-turned-heel-says-his-story-could-go-in-a-number-of-different-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Sami Zayn denies that he&#8217;s turned heel, says his story could &#8220;go in a number of different ways&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3368937921\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Sami Zayn says he hasn&#8217;t turned heel yet on WWE television.<\/p>\n<p>Zayn attacked The Gingerbread Man on Smackdown last week and it was revealed later in the show that he &#8220;died&#8221; during a backstage segment that showed Trick Williams checking on his condition in the trainers room. \u201cI\u2019ll disagree with your statement that I\u2019ve fully turned heel here,&#8221; said Zayn speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GAXYGdq0Zro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Toronto Sun<\/a>. &#8220;I don\u2019t think I have. I think I\u2019m trying to play this one a little different because this one is kind of different. We\u2019re kind of riding these reactions which are kind of different week to week.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/aew-dynamite-keller-kuester-talk-ted-turner-tribute-darby-vs-knight-ospreay-moxley-dynamic-jericho-ricochet-okada-next-in-line-5-6--71902215\">CLICK HERE<\/a> (or search \u201cwade Keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AEW DYNAMITE: Keller &amp; Kuester talk Ted Turner tribute, Darby vs. Knight, Ospreay-Moxley dynamic, Jericho-Ricochet, Okada next in line (5\/6)\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=71902215&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&#8220;I had this idea for a slight character shift that would be a little outside the box, that would split the audience a little bit, but sometimes things just don\u2019t work out exactly how you envision it. Sometimes you think you\u2019re going to be somewhere on the timeline and you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zayn thinks the story could still go in a number of different directions, but he can see why fans would be upset with him after what he did to The GingerBread Man on Smackdown last week. \u201cI still think there\u2019s a ways to go and it could still go in a number of different ways, which I find very interesting and refreshing, said Zayn. &#8220;Although to be fair, if you kick a mannequin gingerbread man below the belt, I know that might upset some people because people want to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The entire interview follows:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"No Holds Barred: WWE Superstar Sami Zayn talks Montreal Canadiens, his \u201cheel turn\u201d and more\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GAXYGdq0Zro?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (5\/6) - AEW Dynamite w\/Keller &amp; Kuester\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ekV_RSSzkaU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2420968879\"><div id=\"pwtor-4135335526\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Sami Zayn says he hasn&#8217;t turned heel yet on WWE television. Zayn attacked The Gingerbread Man on Smackdown last week and it was revealed later in the show that he &#8220;died&#8221; during a backstage segment <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/08\/sami-zayn-denies-that-hes-turned-heel-says-his-story-could-go-in-a-number-of-different-ways\/\" title=\"Sami Zayn denies that he&#8217;s turned heel, says his story could &#8220;go in a number of different ways&#8221;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":203934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-03-at-10.07.12-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216208,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216204\/revisions\/216208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}