We may never know what exactly happened which led to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn being sent home from WWE’s tour of Europe after the Nov. 7 SmackDown filming in Manchester. That will depend on if KO, Sami or management ever decide to address it publicly... and if their stories line up when they do.
There’s disagreement about what happened before and after the on-screen segment where Owens and Zayn left the ringside area with The New Day still in the ring after Sami lost to Kofi Kingston, but something about that scene not going to script seems to be the main issue.
One person who’s been mentioned in some theories about why the pair might have been disgruntled in general lately is former WWE writer Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs was let go after posting a picture with The Bullet Club during that group’s impromptu appearance outside Raw in California a couple months back, and he’s been close with Owens and Zayn since their days together in Ring of Honor (ROH).
Jacobs is enjoying life as a true independent these days, but he did talk to Justin Barrasso of SI.com about his time in WWE recently, and the situation with KO and Sami came up. It doesn’t sound like Jimmy has direct knowledge of this particular occurrence, but his familiarity with all the players involved left him sounding pretty confident in his take:
“Nothing Vince [McMahon] does is surprising.
It’s his sandbox. But the truth is, whatever happened was a misunderstanding. I know those guys, and they’re not the guys who are like, ‘f*** no, we’re not doing that!’
They wouldn’t go into business for themselves in the middle of the ring. Almost nobody f***ing does that. Whatever happened was a miscommunication, that’s all.”
That’s another vote for “miscommunication”... you buy it, Cagesiders?
It really doesn’t matter. Owens and Zayn returned to television last night, and the lack of further rumors probably means everyone is moving forward after whatever happened.
Feel free to discuss it below anyway, though.