Sami Zayn and Darby Allin’s title runs are not the same, that’s not how storytelling works | Opinion
Sami Zayn just lost his WWE Championship just over a week since winning it at the Night of Champions event in Saudi Arabia. Zayn winning the belt wasn’t completely out of the blue, but it did create one of those “moments” that the company can then sell online as a viral clip and drive some engagement at a time when historically WWE feels a bit quieter post-Mania season.
Now I don’t actually mind Sami losing the belt in this fashion. There have been many times in wrestling that someone has got the big one only to lose it and then have to start the chase again. The problem that WWE has, even in a post-Vince McMahon world, is that this has been so spectacularly misused as a trope by the company in the past. It happened to Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam in 2013, and as much as the revisionist claims of “oh were always going to put Bryan in the main event of ‘Mania,” it took such a backlash from fans at the live events to make the company shift gears and build WrestleMania 30 around the-then former Bryan Danielson.
Sami Zayn and Darby Allin’s title reigns
What’s intriguing me about the current discourse (yes I’m reading it, and no don’t ask me why) is some of comparisons between Sami’s really short title reign and Darby Allin’s relatively short reign in AEW. I completely understand that there are going to be the bad faith actors who hate AEW trying to make the comparison to clown on AEW fans, but it’s two completely different scenarios and two completely different types of storytelling.
For one, Darby’s story was built around someone who continued to burn the candle at both ends even after finally winning the top championship. Allin has always been the ’till the wheels fall off’ performer and that continued into his AEW Championship reign. Darby lost the title to MJF because he did exactly what Maxwell said he would do; tire himself out and do so much that he couldn’t beat an MJF at 100%. That was the story. It was simple, we got some really enjoyable matches and Darby had his first run in the main event.
Zayn, by comparison, lost the title in his first defence. Like I said, I have no problem with Sami doing that, there is a chance to tell a good story here with Zayn having to claw his way back to the big one, but some of the people I’ve seen comparing it to Darby’s reign is baffling to me. The money is always, always, always in the chase. It’s been a proven concept ever since pro wrestling has been presented as a work and it is going to for as long as the art form remains.
WWE creating artificial ceilings
Something that WWE is a big fan of (and I’ve heard this from people who have worked there) is creating these ‘artificial ceilings’ for certain talent. Let’s take someone like Cesaro/Claudio Castagnoli as an example of this. A “great way” (to WWE bear in mind) to build a natural fanbase for someone is to keep them at a certain level and wait to see if the crowd starts to get behind them organically. If you don’t believe me, I point you towards Dolph Ziggler as exhibit B. Ziggler was the face of a thousand stop/start pushes, which built up that organic “why don’t they push him!?” feel. The problem with that is when/if you finally pull the trigger on that, there’s no guarantee that it is going to work. For someone like CM Punk it really worked, but that took him having to threaten to leave to do something about it. For someone like Ziggler though, it hamstrung him.
The character of Sami Zayn is the most compelling when he is trying to chase that dream, reach that top of the mountain, only to be cut off at the last second…but only to an extent. It would’ve been 10 attempts at a World Title without winning if Zayn didn’t get the title at NOC, so I understand doing the change, but I also understand taking the belt off of him so quickly. Give Sami the time to build from the bottom and get people invested in seeing him win again, because the money is always in the chase.
Allin was a completely different story. Darby took advantage of a cocky MJF to win the belt, and the bad guy rested until he could get his revenge in the ‘easiest’ way possible, when Darby had exhausted himself trying to defend the title against any and all comers. AEW now has the chance to tell a different story with Darby about how he tries to get back to that main event level, and it’s a different story to what WWE can do with Zayn. Two different styles of storytelling, but both can be equally as effective if done correctly.
I don’t actually think it’s the people who subscribe to this site who are making the comparison, but that’s my fault for reading X and Facebook I guess. If what I’ve written here gets out beyond our usual readership and into the mires of social media, I’m sure many people will either A: say Dave wrote this or B: say I have an anti-WWE agenda. Funnily enough I don’t, I have a “comparison is the thief of joy” agenda, especially when it’s not even something that is worth comparing.
Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator for NationalWorld. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop and The Hard Times.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.