Rami Stephen Sebei (July 12, 1984) better known by his ring name Sami Zayn, a Canadian professional wrestler who performed in NXT and WWE. He is currently signed under Raw brand.
In WWE, he is a former NXT Champion and a one-time Slammy Award winner.
Generico achieved much success in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) as a two-time PWG World Champion and five-time World Tag Team Champion. He is the only person to have won both of PWG's annual tournaments, the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament in 2010 and the Battle of Los Angeles in 2011. Generico has also held the ROH World Television Championship and the ROH World Tag Team Championship with Kevin Steen, with whom he later earned the 2010 Feud of the Year award from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Generico is also a two-time IWS World Heavyweight Champion for the Montreal-based International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS). Having wrestled internationally, Generico won the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship in Germany and DDT Pro-Wrestling's KO-D Openweight Championship in Japan.
Professional wrestling career[]
On February 13, 2013, Zayn made his debut for WWE's NXT Wrestling, sporting a mask and dancing with Brodus Clay and Anya following Clay's match with Conor O'Brian. Sami's NXT in-ring debut took place at a live event on March 7 in Tampa, Florida. Working unmasked and under his real name, he teamed with Kassius Ohno in a tag team match, where the two faced Erick Rowan and Luke Harper. On March 21, Zayn defeated Briley Pierce in a dark match prior to the NXT tapings. Zayn made his televised debut on the May 22 episode of NXT, first defeating Curt Hawkins in the opening match and then challenging and scoring an upset win over Antonio Cesaro later in the show. The following week he took part in an 18-man battle royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship, but was eliminated by Mason Ryan. On June 13, Zayn suffered his first pinfall loss in NXT in a rematch with Cesaro. On the July 17 NXT, Zayn failed to win another number one contender match also involving Cesaro and Leo Kruger. On the July 31 NXT, Zayn teamed with NXT Champion Bo Dallas against Cesaro and Kruger; after Cesaro and Zayn brawled to the back, Dallas lost the match and later blamed Zayn for the loss. On the August 21 NXT, Cesaro defeated Zayn in a two-out-of-three falls match to conclude the feud. On September 6, Zayn made his WWE debut at a house show in his hometown of Montreal, where he defeated Cesaro. When Zayn targeted Dallas' NXT Championship, Dallas cost Zayn his match against Cesaro's fellow Real American, Jack Swagger. Dallas held an open challenge to determine the next title contender but banned Zayn from competing, so Zayn masqueraded as the masked El Local and defeated Dallas to earn his title shot. The match occurred on the October 16 NXT; General Manager JBL restarted the match when Zayn won despite Dallas' foot on the ropes, but not when Dallas sent Zayn into an exposed turnbuckle to retain his title. After tying a Beat the Clock challenge with Adrian Neville by defeating Leo Kruger, Zayn lost a number one contender's match to Neville on the November 27 NXT. Zayn moved on to feud with Kruger and the feud culminated in Zayn winning a two-out-of-three falls match on the January 1, 2014 NXT. After that, Zayn's obsession with his loss to Antonio Cesaro the previous year led to him challenging Cesaro to a rematch on the February 27 NXT ArRIVAL; Cesaro prevailed again but showed respect to Zayn after the match. On the May 8 episode of NXT, Zayn participated in a 20-man battle royal for a NXT Championship shot, with Zayn being involved in a three-way tie. As a result, Zayn faced the other two winners, Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd in a triple-threat match on the next episode of NXT, where Kidd won to become #1 contender. At NXT Takeover, Zayn faced Breeze in another #1 contender match, but suffered a controversial loss. Zayn made his main roster debut on the September 8 episode of Raw, where he and Neville teamed up to defeat Breeze and Kidd, hyping their match at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way, in which Zayn was unsuccessful in capturing the championship following another controversial loss. This caused tension within Neville and Zayn's friendship. After Zayn lost another match, this time to Titus O'Neil, he expressed disappointment and vowed to refocus and capture the NXT Championship, hence starting his "road to redemption", which saw him defeat Tyson Kidd. Zayn was rewarded with a title match against Neville on the November 13 episode of NXT; Neville appeared to injure himself during the match, but he took advantage on Zayn checking on him to defeat Zayn. Neville agreed to Zayn's request for a title rematch at NXT Takeover: R Evolution, with Zayn vowing to quit NXT if he lost. Zayn defeated Neville at the event to win the title and was congratulated by the rest of the NXT roster after the match, but was then attacked by Kevin Owens and taken out on a stretcher. In his first title defense, Zayn defeated Neville in a rematch on the January 14, 2015, episode of NXT, but suffered another post-match attack by Owens. After an irate Zayn demanded a match against Owens, even if it meant putting the title on the line, a title match was set for NXT TakeOver: Rival on February 11. At the event, Owens defeated Zayn after the referee decided that Zayn was unable to continue with the match, ending his reign at 62 days.
On the May 4 episode of Raw, Zayn made his debut after he was introduced by Bret Hart as John Cena's opponent for his weekly U.S. Open Challenge for his WWE United States Championship. Taking place in his hometown of Montreal, Zayn was heavily favored by the crowd over Cena, but ultimately lost the match. Cena, however, let Zayn have the ring to an outstanding ovation from the live crowd following the match. After the show, it was reported that Zayn had suffered a shoulder injury and will undergo an MRI for further analysis. Although injured, he faced Kevin Owens at NXT Takeover: Unstoppable, but it ended in a no contest after Kevin Owens repeatedly attacked Zayn.
After a seven-month hiatus, Zayn returned from injury on the December 23 episode of NXT (taped at the NXT TakeOver: London event on December 16), and defeated Tye Dillinger. On January 24, 2016 at Royal Rumble, Zayn competed in the Rumble match as the number 20 entrant. Zayn eliminated his former best friend Kevin Owens before being eliminated by Braun Strowman.
On the March 7, 2016 episode of Raw, Zayn made a shocking return and attacked WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens after Owens defeated Neville, in a singles match where Owens then started to attack Neville. This led to a tag team match, three days later, on SmackDown, in which Zayn and Neville defeated Owens and The Miz. Zayn continued to rack up victories against the likes of The Miz and Stardust in various singles matches. On March 21, it was announced that Zayn would compete against Owens, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Stardust, Sin Cara and Zack Ryder in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32. At NXT Takeover: Dallas, two days before WrestleMania 32, Zayn lost to newcomer Shinsuke Nakamura. At WrestleMania, Zayn was unsuccessful.
On April 4, Zayn was slated to compete in a Fatal 4-Way match against Owens, A.J. Styles, and Chris Jericho to determine the number one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but was attacked by Owens and later replaced by a returning Cesaro. Because of the actions of Owens, Shane McMahon gave Zayn another opportunity on the April 11 episode of Raw to become a top contender by having him fight Styles, who had won the contender's match the week before. However, Zayn would come up short in his match with Styles. On the April 18 episode of Raw, McMahon announced that Zayn would face Owens at Payback, which Zayn lost. On the May 9th edition of RAW Zayn beat the Miz to enter a Fatal 4-way match for the Intercontinental Championship at Extreme Rules also involving Owens and Cesaro, which The Miz would win. On the May 23 episode of Raw, Zayn defeated Sheamus to qualify for the 2016 Money in the Bank ladder match. However, he came up short as the briefcase was won by Dean Ambrose. Following the event, Zayn was announced to face Owens at Battleground to end their longstanding feud. On the July 18 edition of Raw, he teamed with Cesaro to defeat Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho via Small Package roll-up on Owens. On July 19, at the 2016 WWE Draft, Zayn was drafted to Raw. At Battleground, Zayn defeated Owens after Zayn hit Owens with two Helluva Kicks. At SummerSlam, Zayn and Neville defeated The Dudley Boyz on the Kickoff Show. On the September 12 Raw, Zayn appeared on Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel segment where he was attacked by Jericho, leading to Clash of Champions, where Zayn faced Jericho in a losing effort.
On the October 17 episode of RAW, Zayn began a feud with Braun Strowman after preventing him from confronting Mick Foley. On the October 31 episode of Raw, Sami Zayn participated in a battle royal for a spot on Raw's Survivor Series team, but was last eliminated by Braun Strowman. On November 7 edition of Raw, Zayn defeated Rusev to be the one to accept SmackDown Live superstar Dolph Ziggler's open challenge for the Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series. On the November 15 episode of SmackDown, The Miz defeated Ziggler for the championship, and Zayn instead faced The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series. At Survivor Series Zayn failed to win the championship. If Zayn would have won, the championship would have transferred to Raw. On the November 21 episode of Raw, Zayn faced Braun Strowman, which was stopped by General Manager Mick Foley when he deemed that Zayn was defenseless. The following week, Zayn attacked Strowman after Strowman's match with R-Truth. Mick Foley once again intervened, stopping the confrontation between the two. Zayn would then go on a tirade against Foley for not letting him fight Strowman, then stormed off in anger. On the December 5 episode of Raw, Zayn was defeated by Kevin Owens. On the December 12 episode of Raw, after Zayn defeated Jinder Mahal he refused to be traded to SmackDown and wanted a match with Strowman; the match was made for Roadblock: End of the Line with a time limit of 10 minutes which Zayn won after completing 10 minutes. On the January 2, 2017 episode of Raw, Zayn lost a Last Man Standing Match to Strowman, ending the feud.