After recent reports of a creative pushback on the Gingerbread Man storyline emerged, Sami Zayn has now publicly defended the angle.
Recently speaking on Huge POP! Zayn opened up on the ongoing Gingerbread Man storyline on WWE SmackDown, involving Trick Williams, Lil Yachty, and Zayn himself. Despite the online criticism and reports of internal creative pushback, Zayn believes it “was a good piece of business.”
“I don’t know. I think context is kind of key for all of these things, right? A couple of weeks ago — I think these were maybe back-to-back weeks. I get the timeline messed up sometimes in my head, but the one week when Trick (Williams) and Lil Yachty had came out with the Gingerbread Man, and then I ended up being under the outfit and attacked them with the cane and all that. I thought that was great, and then the following week, I just had the Gingerbread Man mannequin in the ring… and beat up the Gingerbread mannequin. So, in both cases, a Gingerbread Man is kind of — I don’t wanna say the focal part of it but, kind of, right?” Zayn said.
“There’s this serious WrestleMania program for the United States Championship that involves a Gingerbread Man. On paper, sounds kind of silly. But the week we did it, where it was me under the suit, and I’m dancing, and then I clock those guys, I thought that was great,” Zayn added.
However, despite defending the storyline, he also addressed the parts where he felt it lacked life. “Then the following week, with the mannequin, it felt a little bit more lifeless to me. Not as great, maybe a little silly. I don’t know. It’s kind of week-to-week and it’s all in execution so I don’t think the concept of involving a Gingerbread Man on its own is ridiculous because this is pro wrestling and we do all kinds of fun things that maybe, you know, if you were on the internet and you were scrolling Twitter or whatever, and you saw a clip of guys in a ring with a Gingerbread Man, you’d be like what? But, in the world of wrestling, there’s context, and it kind of makes sense, and sometimes, these things get really over, actually.”
Sami Zayn further defends and explains WWE’s Gingerbread Man storyline
In the same interview, the former United States Champion opened up in detail and explained why the Gingerbread Man storyline is not silly.
“So, I don’t think the concept of the Gingerbread Man by itself is ridiculous or silly. It’s all in execution and on a week-to-week basis. But I thought that week where the Gingerbread Man showed up with the bus and he was dapping up Trick, and then he had his own locker room, and then I’m dancing and having all this fun, then I’m just part of the celebration because the Gingerbread Man is there to troll me essentially and make fun of me, and I whack them with a cane and I break the cane on Yachty’s back, and that cane was legitimately made of I don’t know what — oak or something. It was so hard. I don’t know how it broke. I felt that was all a good piece of business, and it was all fun so I don’t take a look at things like a Gingerbread Man, and dismiss them.” (H/T Fightful)
Zayn believes a storyline depends on how the wrestlers execute and commit to it. He believes that when someone is invested and committed to a storyline, they can turn it good.
