The Gingerbread Man storyline running through Sami Zayn’s feud with Trick Williams reportedly faced significant internal resistance within WWE. According to a new report from WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select, several members of the WWE creative team pushed back against the heavy use of the Gingerbread Man gimmick on SmackDown.
A source close to WWE creative described the angle to WrestleVotes Radio as “hokey and archaic.” The report adds there was notable pushback from creative members during the discussion of the storyline’s direction.
The Gingerbread Man character was introduced ahead of WrestleMania 42 alongside Trick Williams and Lil Yachty during Williams’ build to a US Title win over Zayn. The storyline most recently culminated with Zayn appearing to turn heel and “killing” the Gingerbread Man on SmackDown, with a funeral set for tonight’s broadcast.
Zayn himself addressed his current direction in an interview with The Toronto Sun, pushing back on the idea that he has fully turned heel.
“I’ll disagree with your statement that I’ve 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 kind of 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, but sometimes things just don’t work out exactly how you envision it. Sometimes you think you’re going to be somewhere on the timeline and you’re not.”