We’re less than 24 hours removed from WWE’s Hell In A Cell 2017 pay-per-view, and as usual, we wrestling fans have more questions than answers: Is Shane McMahon okay? Is Dolph Ziggler good-match kryptonite? Is Rusev ever going to win when it matters? Will the Fashion Police allow the Ascension to befriend them? But most importantly: Where in the hell did Sami Zayn come from in the main event?
Okay, maybe I’m more obsessed with this than most people. But every time I watch a replay of Shane’s death-defying drop from the top of Hell In A Cell, I try to figure out just how no one noticed that a 6’1″ redheaded, bearded ska fan was standing ringside, just feet away from his best frenemy Kevin Owens. Sure, WWE’s official feed is going to obscure his reveal until the replays for maximum impact, but even then, every angle shows Sami already in place:
So it was down the fan-footage rabbit hole I went. I’ve spent all day digging up grainy clips on YouTube, trying to piece together if Sami was disguised as a cameraman, hiding under an announce table the whole time or what. If you watch this multi-angle fan video, you’ll see that Sami is crouching, hood off, for a whopping 30 seconds in plain view of the entire arena:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpRAGj1MqSI
So I dig deeper, and find this compilation of 10 different angles of Shane’s jump:
Frustratingly, none of them reveal Sami’s entrance. So I venture onward, watching countless clips from countless angles, all hoping to reveal Sami’s literal path to the metaphorical dark side. Then, just as I was about to give up, I click on one more video — a grainy, low-quality clip shot from the upper deck. Ladies and gentlemen, our Zaynpruder film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z04sD1M6Ek
As you can see in the corner of your screen, Sami enters from the back… and to the left. Apparently, dude just ran down the aisle, and no one was ever the wiser, thanks to the age-old art of misdirection. (Having a McMahon standing on top of a cell will do that.) When everyone is looking up, you can do anything you want on the ground. It’s still bonkers that for 30 whole seconds, Sami was completely visible yet no one noticed him. Maybe Cartman was onto something.
Now that we know where Sami was coming from physically, the next big question is where was Sami coming from… emotionally. I guess we’ll have to wait till Tuesday night to find out.
