The Gingerbread Man storyline that ran through the Trick Williams and Sami Zayn program on SmackDown was met with significant internal resistance within WWE’s creative team, according to a new report.
WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select reported that several creative members pushed against the heavy use of the Gingerbread Man gimmick throughout the SmackDown program. A source close to the creative team described the angle as hokey and archaic, and notable pushback was present while the storyline direction was being discussed internally.
The Gingerbread Man was introduced to SmackDown as part of the friendship between Trick Williams and rapper Lil Yachty. Sami Zayn’s heel pivot culminated in him killing off the Gingerbread Man on SmackDown, which served as one of the more divisive moments of the program among fans and, apparently, within WWE itself.
Zayn recently told The Toronto Sun that he does not consider himself to have fully turned heel and that the character shift was intended to be more nuanced than a traditional turn, acknowledging that things did not always land where he envisioned on the timeline.
“I’ll disagree with your statement that I fully turned heel here. I don’t think I have. I think I’m trying to play this one a little different because this one is kind of different. We’re kind of riding these reactions, which are different week to week. I had this idea for a slight character shift that would be a little outside the box that would split the audience a little bit. Sometimes things just don’t work out exactly how you envision it, and sometimes you think you’re gonna be somewhere on the timeline and you’re not. Maybe I’m being a little vague here about it, but all this to say I still think there’s ways to go and it can still go in a number of different ways, which I find very interesting and kind of refreshing. Although to be fair, if you kick a mannequin Gingerbread Man below the belt, that might upset people because people want to have fun,” Zayn said.
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