In probably the biggest wrestling news today (😬)... I'm writing a book! It's a detailed history of Kevin and Sami's journey, from the pool halls of Montreal to the main event of WrestleMania. It's being published by
@HybridShoot
in 2024!
The Architect, a thread.
After the events of WrestleMania 40, many people remember Seth telling Cody he'll be his shield back in February, which is exactly what happened. But there's another line in that promo that explains even more about his actions at WrestleMania.
Before his announcement, Roman listens to the crowd boo him for the last time, and you can see the exact moment that he realizes... that he is going to miss it.
What we talk about when we talk about top-rope brainbusters: a thread.
@SamiZayn
has won the Intercontinental championship four times now. But this one was special for many reasons. And this time he had a little extra help.
He knows Roman will not be able to resist re-enacting that moment once more, this time as the aggressor. The Architect knows how to find the flaw in the foundation of the Bloodline and do what's necessary to bring down the monster he helped create. He was Cody's shield.
In Montreal,
@SamiZayn
dug deep into his arsenal of moves in honor of fellow Montreal native El Generico, showing off:
1. The around-the-world arm drag!
There's so much in this moment: Jimmy rising to stand with his brother. Solo standing still. Roman's baffled realization that control might be slipping away from him. But the thing that legit choked me up was the fans joining in instantly and freely out of love for Sami.
WWE has a new Behind the Scenes video of the Rumble, and this segment is really too long to do justice with a single gif, so here's Chad Gable and Kevin Owens giving Sami Zayn some constructive criticism about his gear.
At WrestleMania, when he shows up to the Shield music, in the Shield gear, with his chair, Roman takes him out instantly, instinctively. But Seth has achieved what he came to do: he's gotten himself and a chair into the ring.
At the Rumble in 2022, Seth deliberately fucked with Roman's head by entering to the Shield's old music, wearing the Shield's old gear. Roman's face when he hears their voices from long ago...
There were a lot of callbacks in Kevin & Sami's match, but here's a thread about the saddest.
In 2017, Sami planned to enjoy watching his old foe KO get destroyed by Shane McMahon, but at the last second found himself leaping forward to save his enemy.
There's a very distinct pleasure in reviewing Steen & Generico's history and suddenly recognizing the same move, repeated fifteen years apart.
Ludwig Kaiser today, Mark Briscoe in 2008.
So apparently some combination of being a babyface again and being in a tag team with Kevin at last has leveled up Sami Zayn's beautiful Blue Thunderbomb into a finishing move! Here he is winning clean with it... and then celebrating as though he's won a title. 💗
So here's the other thing that Seth says to Cody that's important: he admits (for the first time?) that he's partially responsible for the creation of the paranoia and iron-fisted control of the Tribal Chief.
Seth mockingly offered Roman the old Shield fist bump and Roman just plain snapped. He got Seth in a guillotine choke and choked him out, losing the match (but retaining his title) when he refused to relinquish the hold.
For Roman Reigns, there are always two traumas that form the base of his fractured soul. One is his disastrous Royal Rumble win in 2015. The other is, of course, Seth Rollins betraying the Shield.
That betrayal is Roman's constant recurring nightmare, a moment he's never been able to find his way out of. Part of why he hated Sami so much was that Sami put him back into that helpless moment: the steel at his shoulder blades, the fall forward.
The final camera shot of WarGames, which travels from Sami's ravaged face, to Kevin's fallen body, to Roman's opaque and speculative gaze between the two.
I'm working on a piece about
@WWECesaro
and discovered I had a file of a 2009 Ring of Honor match where
@WWEDanielBryan
and
@KennyOmegamanX
hit twin dropkicks on him and then do double kip-ups, and my life and the world feel so much better for having seen it.
Hey, so Raw ending with Sami jumping into the ring all bright-eyed and ready to fight forever, only to have Kevin remove his wrist tape and shrug at him dismissively? Yeah, that hurt a lot.
You never know quite what you might run into on the WWE 24 specials--like this year's for WrestleMania, which gives us a glimpse of Roman and Paul Heyman backstage in 2018 right after Roman disclosed his leukemia diagnosis.
I'm absolutely *living* for Mustafa's small, resigned sigh before he pushes Mansoor out of the way. "I'm going to save him, aren't I? I guess I am. Damn it."
For those of you tired of Shocked Kickout Reaction, please take a moment to appreciate Sami's "Well, I didn't really expect a pin with a clothesline, but it was worth a shot" reaction.
In a night of moments huge and small, little things stayed with me. Like a haggard Adam Page gesturing to cut his music off and move on to the Dark Order entrance.
It’s been days now, but I still can’t get over Kairi Sane’s face as she goes to throw open her umbrella with “Hana-chan, thank you” written on it, or her expression as she looks up at the words.
I cannot help but admire this attention to detail: while pulling a switcheroo, you can see
@EltonPrince_PD
suddenly realize he needs to tug the ring apron down further... because his chest is hairier than Kit Wilson's and would therefore give the ruse away.
“I heard Aleister Black say, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be in the ring with Edge.’“
The stunned delight in Aleister and Kevin’s faces as they realize who they’ll be sharing the Royal Rumble with!
Kevin counters one of Dustin Rhodes' signature moves... and when he starts doing the Goldust taunt the camera apparently decides it has other places to be. 😅
The first singles match between
@FightOwensFight
and El Generico happened in 2003.
In 2014, I swore to find it.
This is the story of how, seven years later, I did.
.
@FightOwensFight
and
@JohnnyGargano
finish up their conversation at the perfect time and both of them know what the correct response is.
It's 2014 and Kevin's got some work to do on that form, but he'll get there.
Happy 3/16!
A moment to appreciate the sheer technical artistry of this move: the way Sami moves Daniel’s head, both to protect him and to simulate the violent recoil of being kicked; the way Sami’s outflung arm adds to the impression of impact.
Until this night, this match, when the spirit of El Generico lifted him to victory. All of Sami's selves—private and public, fictional and real, past and present—knit together at last.
This little moment in the chaos of the Rumble, when
@EdgeRatedR
has a second to really hear the crowd’s response, and he takes it all in and just... *sighs.*
I love how you can see Eddie's eyes flick over and take in the kid just enough to make that fistbump without interrupting his beatdown. (And the kid's response!)
Two very different but exquisite sells of the RKO. Theory's Squashed-Frog Approach! Waller's Dying Arm-Fling Pirouette! Kevin in the background of both enjoying himself!
We find out on Edge's 24 special that this spear in Toronto was completely unplanned, even by him. Now we can *see* Elias realize he's going to take Edge's first spear in almost a decade, and how he shifts his stance to communicate to Edge that he's ready for it. Amazing.
Sami finds himself unable to maintain character when answering a random child's phone call after Johnny Knoxville shared his phone number before WrestleMania 2022. (From 24: WrestleMania 38).
[Journey's End, a thread about War Games and DIY]
It's been clear for the last few weeks that War Games was going to be an important moment for
@NXTCiampa
and
@JohnnyGargano
, AKA DIY, one of the very best black-and-gold tag teams and rivalries.
On Twitter,
@SamiZayn
thanked the fans for being with him on this ride. I don't think the ride is over yet. This thread is a summary of some of the elements of the story so far and what they evoke.
Kenny in his one-winged gear stopping dead to stare blankly at that "WHAT WOULD KOTA THINK?" sign--Don Callis even making sure to pull the eye toward it--is just a fantastic moment.
I like to think that later a delighted
@SuperKingofBros
said “Bro, your puns were hilarious, bro!”
And
@PeteDunneYxB
looked at him and said “What puns.”
A moment that hit me hard during the tag match: Kevin trying to get an exhausted and battered Sami to his feet to finish a twenty-year journey, looking down and telling him "We're almost there."
It's somewhat obscured by a badly-timed camera cut, but you can see that Kevin starts to automatically look behind him for Sami and then realizes he's not going to be there. 😭
In 2021, Kevin and Sami had a WrestleMania match where Kevin said the goal was to stun Sami back to reality, back to who he used to be: fierce and heroic and beloved.
In 2021, he failed.
(This is a thread about how, two years later, he may have succeeded).
One of my favorite images from the most recent TakeOver: an exhausted Ilja Dragunov having to be told that Walter tapped out and he is in fact the new NXT UK champion.
Realizing that
@ProjectCiampa
was, in his own twisted and agonizing way, trying to recreate and relive the moment when Johnny sacrificed himself to save him...