If anyone has paid attention to WWE’s Sami Zayn for any amount of time — or if they’ve ever listened to his entrance theme — they know that the dude is a big fan of ska. Just can’t get enough of it. He’s even caused guest appearances on talk shows to break out into impromptu skank fests. But it may come as a bit of a shock that two of the most beloved NXT Champions ever nearly based their entire gimmicks around the general ska aesthetic.
In a post for Team Rock, Sami explained his theme music, but he went above and beyond in revealing that he and (née Adrian) Neville wanted to be a literal Two Tone Army.
[WWE Superstar] Neville and I are big fans of ska. He’s actually more into original, Jamaican, skinhead, two-tone ska from England, but I’m more into punk ska – Operation Ivy and stuff Rancid would do. And while we were in developmental at the Performance Centre, we’d have promo class every week with Dusty [Rhodes, WWE Hall Of Famer].
Neville and I pitched this idea – and we played with it for months and months, encouraged by Dusty – where we dressed in two-tone suits to do these ska characters. I think someone eventually showed this to [WWE Executive Vice President] Triple H and I had this generic stock music. At this point, NXT was starting to become a pretty big deal, so it wasn’t just stock music being picked any more, WWE were investing time and making music for these guys. Triple H caught wind of this ska thing I was doing with Neville and said ‘Well, if this is more him than the music he’s got now, let’s do something in this [vein]’.
THEY WANTED TO BE SKA: THE TAG TEAM. That’s just too glorious to even contemplate for very long without getting lightheaded. Kudos to Triple H for fundamentally not understanding what the hell they were talking about but being willing to at least give Sami the music he wanted for his character.
And now, lo and behold, Zayn and Neville have been teaming together on the main roster. Could we begin seeing a Five Iron Frenzy of ska action in WWE soon? Or will the entire situation prove to be Less Than Jake? If Sami and Neville start once again laying down heavy hints of being a ska-based tag team, Vince McMahon should pickitup pickitup pickitup.
