The best friend duo of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have become one of the most entertaining parts of WWE’s Smackdown brand in the last few months. Zayn’s shocking heel turn during KO’s Hell in a Cell match win over Shane McMahon led to Zayn turning heel for the first time in WWE. Since then, Zayn has become an obnoxious jerk who Owens has called his “guardian angel” while the two men have worked together as best friends to be a thorn in the side of the faces on the roster.
While everything appears to be good for the duo on camera, there apparently was some issue with them behind the scenes because WWE has sent them home from the second leg of Smackdown’s European tour. The Smackdown crew flew to Europe last Wednesday, and will return to the United States after their Sunday show in Florence, Italy.
It was reported by PWInsider that Owens and Zayn were sent home following Tuesday’s Smackdown taping in Manchester, England and that it was confirmed by multiple sources. They note that there are “conflicting reports” about why the two men were sent home, but they were definitely sent back to the United States today.
Owens and Zayn being sent home was also confirmed by Pro Wrestling Sheet, who noted that Owens and Zayn have heat because they were supposed to “feed” The New Day after Kingston beat Zayn, but they left the ring instead. Owens actually punched Kingston a couple of times and then left the ring. Feed is another way of saying getting beat up by the others, so that means Owens and Zayn left before that could happen, which means they went off script. That’s a big no-no obviously.
In another update on the story, Sports Illustrated‘s Justin Barrasso reports that multiple sources confirmed to them that Kevin and Sami went “into business for themselves” when they were on camera on Smackdown this week.
A few weeks ago, Owens left WWE’s South American tour on an excused absence to tend to a family matter.
During this week’s Smackdown, Zayn was put in a singles match with Kofi Kingston and lost to him clean in about ten minutes. Kingston won with a cross body block.
Owens and Zayn are currently not scheduled in a match at Survivor Series. It’s not known if they will even appear on the November 19 event unless they show up to cost Shane McMahon and Team Smackdown the victory in their elimination match against Raw.
