Fans and wrestlers have praised WWE for the storyline with Sami Zayn and The Bloodline.
It grew organically, as confirmed by Zayn in various interviews where he initially thought it would be a good way to be mentioned with Reigns on television, never thinking it would get or last to the point that it did.
Zayn became an honorary member of The Bloodline and was accepted by the members of the group, only for it to end at the Royal Rumble after Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Title over Kevin Owens. Post-match, The Bloodline beat down Owens further, and Reigns was going to hit him with a chair, only for Zayn to stop him.
Reigns wanted Zayn to hit Owens with the chair and Zayn refused to do it. Zayn hit Reigns in the back instead. The Bloodline beat down Zayn, except for Jey Uso, who walked out.
As previously reported before the Rumble, Vince McMahon and Triple H do not see Zayn as the new face of WWE.
Going into the Rumble, there had been a push by fans for WWE to have Zayn win the 30-Man Royal Rumble to face Reigns at Mania for the title. Instead, Cody Rhodes won the bout and will challenge Reigns for the title at Mania.
WWE is expected to announce Reigns defending against Zayn at the Elimination Chamber PLE this month.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that there was some support from people in WWE that wanted WWE to change plans and have Zayn get the WrestleMania main event spot.
Meltzer wrote, “The issue got so hot that from a fans perspective, Reigns-Zayn and really a title change for the singles belt would have been the perfect climax to the angle. This was acknowledged by a few internally that they didn’t see coming in how hot this would be, and it should be changed, but we were also told that neither Vince McMahon nor Paul Levesque saw Zayn as a guy who could headline WrestleMania and that the scenario of Zayn challenging in Montreal and moving it to WrestleMania because he got hot, which WWE did previously for Kofi Kingston when he got hot and got the spot planned for Owens in 2019 was not going to happen.”
The Chamber PLE takes place on February 18th in Montreal.
