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What's the story?
After Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were "fired" last week on SmackDown Live, we saw Kevin Owens change his Twitter handles to "Kevin Steen" and "Fight Steen Fight", thus becoming unverified to play on the idea of him no longer being employed by WWE - but Sami Zayn's case is a whole other story.
Over the past week, we've seen El Generico re-emerge on Twitter after several reports, from Kevin Owens, that he had died in Mexico - coincidentally just before Sami Zayn debuted in WWE. Well, it turns out there's an interesting story behind El Generico's resurrection.
In case you didn't know...
After assaulting Shane McMahon two weeks ago after a bitter rivalry, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn also laid out Daniel Bryan last week on the same night it was revealed he would come out of retirement and return to the ring.
The reason? Daniel Bryan "fired" both men for their actions. You can see what happened below.
The heart of the matter
Well, on this week's New Age Insiders show, they spoke about the reason for the sudden re-emergence of El Generico and spoke of why his merchandise is now being sold again.
NAI said that, according to their sources, WWE have allowed Sami Zayn to bring back the El Generico gimmick on social media while he's "fired" from WWE from now until at least WrestleMania because Zayn does not make a great deal of income from WWE merchandise.
While Sami Zayn has always been a fan favourite - even as a heel - it's reported that the Underdog from the Underground doesn't shift a lot of merch and, in fact, earns most of his money from wrestling on house shows.
It's claimed that WWE are allowing Sami Zayn to make money from El Generico merchandise being sold on Pro Wrestling Tees as his appearances in WWE will be limited between now and WrestleMania, essentially cutting his pay by making Zayn and Owens go all in with the fired angle
You can listen to the entire New Age Insiders podcast by clicking on the link in the tweet embedded below.
What's next?
There's only one episode of SmackDown Live left before WrestleMania - where Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are scheduled to take on Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon.
Zayn and Owens have also appeared on sporadic house shows, so we may indeed see them appear before WrestleMania. If not, do we see Owens and Zayn, or Steen and El Generico?
Stranger things have happened...
Author's take
Well, I love this. The Owens to Steen transformation was awesome and shows how great Owens is at committing to storylines. El Generico coming back? Well, after rumours that he was dead or at an orphanage in Mexico, it's a miracle that he's back!
This is a really cool easter egg for people who are big fans of pre-WWE Owens and Zayn, and I think it's genius.
