Sami Zayn was recently interviewed by Peter Rosenberg for Cheap Heat, where he spoke about his current storyline with The Bloodline and how it began.

“I won’t pull the curtain back too much, but the idea was kicked around about a year ago, a good six months before the seeds were even planted on screen. The first time I think there was any interaction between myself and the Bloodline was just after WrestleMania. In actuality, the idea was first discussed going into Survivor Series of last year. I was doing this whole thing on SmackDown where I was the longest-tenured member as the locker room leader. I thought it’d be something interesting with the locker room leader and Head of the Table. The premise being, the Head of the Table isn’t in the locker room anymore. I wasn’t originally envisioning being a full member of the Bloodline or anything like that, just something to where Roman and I can occasionally get on screen together in a light-hearted way and I’m giving him these reports of what’s going on and what he needs to be careful for. Every once in a while, I get things kicked my way too. That was sort of the idea.”

On Roman's involvement:

“It was talked about with Roman as well. We were sitting at catering one day, and I heard an interview that he did with Ariel Helwani where he was very kind towards me and saying nice things about me as an on-screen character and that he’d like to do something down the road with me one day. We got to talking and I don’t remember exactly how it went, but it was a mutual thing.”