WWE has received praise from fans and wrestlers for the storyline involving Sami Zayn and The Bloodline.
It grew organically, as Zayn confirmed in various interviews, where he initially thought it would be a good way to be mentioned with Reigns on television, never expecting it to get or last as long as it did.
Zayn was accepted as an honorary member of The Bloodline by the members of the group, only for it to come to an end at the Royal Rumble when Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Title over Kevin Owens. Following the match, The Bloodline continued to beat down Owens, and Reigns was about to hit him with a chair when Zayn intervened.
Reigns demanded that Zayn hit Owens with the chair, but Zayn refused. Instead, Zayn hit Reigns in the back. Except for Jey Uso, who walked away, the Bloodline beat down Zayn.
As PWMania.com previously reported prior to the Rumble, Vince McMahon and Triple H do not see Zayn as the new face of WWE.
Fans had pushed WWE to have Zayn win the 30-Man Royal Rumble so that he could face Reigns for the title at Mania. Instead, Cody Rhodes won the match and will face Roman Reigns for the WWE championship at Mania.
WWE is expected to reveal Reigns’ opponent for the Elimination Chamber PLE later this month.
In the most recent issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that there was some support within WWE for WWE to change their plans and give Zayn 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 Elimination Chamber PLE will be held in Montreal on February 18th.
