IWC Scum — On the Twilight of Elimination Chamber, Are You Team Kevin or Team Sami?
Welcome back to the column that puts the incessant whining and ccomplaining in IWC. I’m the manchild they call SkitZ, and this is my virtual playground of tomfoolery.
We’re mere hours away from another 4-match PLE featuring Sami Zayn versus Kevin Owens for the 2,025th time. WWE’s fanbase should be tired of this story by now, but each new chapter refreshes the series and breathes new life into it. They’re the wrestling equivalent of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice, except people still care about the quirky redhead and his stone cold killer of a former friend.
The heated exchange between Adam Pierce and Sami a couple weeks ago boiled down to the RAW General Manager giving into Zayn’s demands. I distinctly recall him saying: “And Sami… it’s not official. It’s unscanctioned.”
15 minutes later, I checked Twitter and what popped up at the top of my feed? WWE going “IT’S OFFICIAL. Sami Zayn versus Kevin Owens at Elimination Chamber!”
Political correctness aside, unsanctioned matches have never made much sense to me, even within the whacky world of professional wrestling. It’s sold as more of an unruly scuffle than a legitimate match. There are supposedly no rules or structured parameters, yet when the company booked one of these back at SummerSlam 2002, it ended with HBK pinning Triple H… Alrighty then. Call me illogical, but I feel like the finish of such an ambiguous gimmick match shouldn’t be based around a pinfall or submission in the ring. Build to a big spot where one guy gets tossed from a balcony, or both men are stretchered out in separate ambulances. You know as well as I do that there’s no need for a definitive winner here.
This latest pit stop in KO and Sami’s rivalry strikes me as nothing more than a convenient intersection before they veer off in different directions en route to Vegas. Owens is presumably forced to deal with a vengeful Randy Orton, whereas something tells me Sami works Karrion Kross at WrestleMania. The latter was another rising NXT star dead on arrival thanks to Vince, but he’s rebounded a bit as of late, and fans seem ready to give Kross a second chance at life in WWE.
As far as Owens and Zayn are concerned though, I have no doubt their fight at Elimination Chamber will be chaos of the best kind. I just wouldn’t go expecting anything on the level of their wars in Ring of Honor. Neither man’s body is pliable enough to withstand that level of punishment at this stage of their careers. As this week dragged on, I got to thinking about the insane amount of synchronicity between KO and Sami. They’re like an aging boy band that keeps cranking out the hits.
If one could combine the two, you’d have the ideal wrestler. Sami is the lovable underdog babyface, but also thrived as an annoying neurotic villain. Then there’s KO who plays the rough and tumble everyman to perfection, as well as a despicable bully on the flip side of things. And that’s speaking strictly from a performance standpoint.
We’ve never witnessed two careers intertwine quite like Kevin and Sami’s have over the past 10 years. Zayn made it to WWE first, but KO beat him to the main roster; not before they feuded over the NXT Title however. Both men challenged John Cena for the United States Championship in May of 2015, but only KO managed to dethrone him (temporarily at least). The frenemies made their WrestleMania debuts in the same match in 2016, while Zayn pulled double duty that weekend; putting on a MOTY contender with Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT: Dallas.
Not only were they in the multi-man ladder bout at WM32, but Sami and KO have competed in the same match 4 times over the course of their 8 appearances at ‘Mania; twice as opponents and twice as teammates. They’ve won Tag Team gold together at the event, but also captured singles titles there. Both guys were involved in the hottest angle of the year heading into ‘Mania and appeared poised to challenge for a World Title in the main event, only to have their dreams dashed beforehand (Owens/Jericho in 2017 and Zayn/Reigns in 2023). They each ultimately won over Vince who chose Kevin out of the entire roster to wrestle Steve Austin, and added Sami Zayn of all goofs to The Bloodline stable.
At WM38, KO carried Stone Cold to a fun, well-received match despite Austin not having wrestled in 19 years. Zayn accomplished the same with Johnny Knoxville, despite the stunt actor never working a match beyond his Royal Rumble appearance. Kevin managed to turn back the clock to 2001, as did Sami with the wild bunch from the Jackass crew. Then at WMXL, Owens and Zayn each competed for singles gold and shared a moment backstage. Sami succeeded whilst also ending a record-breaking title reign for the second consecutive ‘Mania. Meanwhile, Owens failed to dethrone the same douche that was ringside for he and Zayn’s 1-on-1 match three years earlier.
Both closed out 2018 on the sidelines rehabbing injuries, both missed WM35, both landed on the Night 1 midcard of COVID-Mania, and both are heading for the same shrug-worthy spot at this year’s event. Are some of my statistics as eyebrow-raising as Rhea Ripley’s stalker approaching her on Valentine’s Day? You better believe it, buddy. The sheer number of similarities between Sami and Kevin are staggering though. Don’t deny it!
Having run through the tale of the tape with these two, my biggest takeaway from all this is “when do Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens get their due?”. Prior to me joining NoDQ, I wrote a column regarding KO always coming up short against the likes of Cody and Roman; even suggesting Owens should’ve been rewarded with a 4-5 month reign before dropping the WWE Championship back to Rhodes at the Rumble. It’s been a long time coming for the ever-reliable KO, and then there’s Sami Zayn who’s still yet to reach that crowning achievement.
With Kevin moving away from the Cody feud and Sami constantly bumping into Kross backstage, the top half of the hourglass is running empty on opportunities for it to happen. They’re both turning 41 soon and who knows for how long the Canadian duo plans to keep doing this, so Hunter better have some tricks up his sleeve saved for after WWE blows through Vegas. Zayn and KO are both Triple H guys, so I’m fairly confident their collective moment is coming… will it though? I can’t shake the feeling that someday we’ll see a Benoit/Guerrero WMXX-esque embrace where Sami and Kevin are celebrating together as simultaneous World Champions. Maybe not in 2025, but within the next couple years.
Or is this just a pipe dream of mine?
Twitter: writersblock_skitz (@JoshKeegan20)
Email: skitztmrlop@gmail.com
Threads: dweeb_keegan