After taking a couple of days to get some thoughts in order about the main event of the Elimination Chamber, well, here they are.
The story between Sami Zayn and The Bloodline is one that goes back years and involves a lot of disparate threads. Let’s try to sort through this.
Sami Zayn
Despite a memorable debut on the main roster against John Cena, and a memorable conclusion to his NXT run with one of the promotion’s all-time great matches against Shinsuke Nakamura, Zayn’s real introduction to the WWE main roster was intertwined with Kevin Owens. He eliminated Owens at the 2016 Royal Rumble, they were in the same ladder match at that year’s WrestleMania, they would run-in on each other for a few months before perhaps their greatest match in WWE against each other at 2016’s Battleground. After floating in the mid-card for a year, he and Owens teamed up as heels to eventually take on Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon with their jobs on the line (remember that story?). After some more floating and some injuries, we get all the way to 2019 where he and Owens team once again before Owens and Shane break off into (another) feud, and that’s when Zayn’s WWE story really takes off.
At this point, Zayn has been on-again/off-again with his best buddy Kevin for a few years (in WWE kayfabe). He latches on with Nakamura and becomes his manager, of sorts, and after a few months, Nakamura loses the Intercontinental Title to Braun Strowman. Zayn wins that title. That was in March of 2020, and we know what happens next. The pandemic leads to Zayn being stripped of the title, only to win it later that year. He loses it again a few months later and, three weeks after that, is eliminated by Owens in an Elimination Chamber match. Sami finally loses it; his best friend keeps blocking his path, his partnership with Nakamura fizzles quickly, he loses a bunch of matches, and starts to believe that management is trying to keep him down as an absurd conspiracy theorist. This brings Owens back into the picture which culminates in a Last Man Standing match. After all this, Zayn has lost his best friend, his partner, his championship, and any sense of confidence in himself. This leads into a storyline with the guys from Jackass which, against all odds, ends up being a fantastic match at WrestleMania (which he loses).
Sami is now truly broken as a person. He has lost everything he has worked for and now he got embarrassed by a stuntman on the biggest stage in pro wrestling. He has no belief in who he is, he has no one to support him, and all this makes him desperate. So desperate that he’ll try to ingratiate himself to one of the cruelest characters in the company in Roman Reigns.
Roman Reigns
Roman’s WWE story is well-known and thus not necessary to re-hash, but very quickly his Bloodline-era story is one of vanity. After being the Chosen One for about a decade, he finally found the character that would get him to the level management had always hoped for. It was one of a pseudo mob boss who demands absolute loyalty with no questions asked. He beat the loyalty into his cousin Jey Uso in two fantastic matches in the fall of 2020 which led to the unification of Jimmy and Jey Uso with Reigns as the Head Of The Table. Add in Paul Heyman as an advisor figure and Reigns – who won the title in August – now had everything he needed to hold onto his spot as the unquestioned top of the food chain.
Of course, it’s a brittle façade. Reigns is always one unfiltered thought away from laying a beating on someone (as he had often done with Jey). He is aware that at the top of the food chain, he’s the target, and any time that title is on the line, he’s three seconds away from everything that took him a decade to earn to disappear. He is willing to hold onto his position by any means necessary, and for him to do that, he needs unending loyalty from those that are beneath him. Challenges to his throne will be met with brutality and it will be merciless. It takes broken people to follow a broken man like Reigns, and Jimmy and Jey were broken by Roman’s fists. They will serve him out of fear of what happens if they don’t.
Enter Sami Zayn.
He helps the Usos win matches, he helps Reigns win matches, and he always does what they ask him to do (or not do) week in, and week out. He does this because he has nowhere left to go. He doesn’t have a best friend, he doesn’t have a partner, he doesn’t have the belief in himself anymore. He wants to be accepted in a family unit because of all he’s lost, even if it means serving a ruthless boss-type figure like Reigns.
However, as is pointed out later by Owens in what is a turning point in this story, Zayn is not family. He might help them win matches, he might kick Owens in the balls at War Games, he might act with unquestioning loyalty, but he’s not, in a word, ‘Ucey’ enough for The Bloodline. Eventually, Reigns will turn on him, as everyone in Zayn’s WWE history has turned on him, and that is something he cannot endure again.
Reigns puts Zayn to his final test at the Royal Rumble, which leads to Zayn slamming the chair in Reigns’s back and his break from The Bloodline. He has finally stood up to Reigns, and will do so again right up until the Chamber match itself, but that’s not where the story ends.
Jey Uso
Because of how good Zayn and Reigns have been in this story, it’s easy to forget that this all starts with Jey Uso. It’s him standing up to Reigns back in the fall of 2020 that kicks off The Bloodline story in earnest, that installs Reigns as the Head Of The Table, and it’s one that establishes the ground rules for being in The Bloodline. As has been repeated: loyalty without thought is paramount. If Roman says ‘fight him’, Jey is fighting whomever he’s pointing at. He does this because Roman, over the span of about two months, regularly beats the tar out of Jey. Sure, the tag-team Uso gets his own shots in, but Jimmy eventually has to save Jey from himself and they both acknowledge Reigns as their leader, their Head Of The Table.
Jey is the wrinkle in this entire story. He is the test case; he is Patient Zero. He is the one who knows better than anyone else – including Sami – what happens when Reigns feels he’s been disrespected. Him not bending to Roman’s every whim over the last month is what has been crucial to this story. It shows that it isn’t only Sami who is sick of Roman’s shit – there are at least two of them in that faction with similar feelings. There may be even more (who knows what Solo is thinking?). The façade is starting to crack, and Reigns is suddenly vulnerable at the Elimination Chamber.
Getting To The Chamber
We have the Ultimate Underdog in Zayn who lost everything but, after months of an awful situation in The Bloodline, finally found the nerve to stand up to the biggest bully in WWE. He is doing this while having been in contact with Jey over the weeks leading up to the Chamber. That it’s those two who are linked so much leading up to the Chamber is notable. It’s not Zayn and Owens, because Owens isn’t his friend, not right now. Owens and Zayn aren’t a team, but Jey and Zayn are, at least spiritually. They are the ones from The Bloodline that have stood up to Reigns, and they will need to do so again to take him down. (That is if Jey actually helps Sami, which we’ll get to.)
The stage is starting to set. Reigns is vulnerable as at least one member has left after smashing him with a chair and there’s another with previously questioned loyalty, and it is being questioned once again.
This is where the first problem appears: the promos between Cody Rhodes and Paul Heyman, and Cody Rhodes and Sami Zayn. In a vacuum, the promos are both great. They are both electric, actually. But they belong in another story or should be done at another time. The Rhodes/Heyman promo makes it clear WWE has no intention of Zayn actually winning at the Chamber. While (I assume) most fans were thinking Zayn wasn’t winning anyway, this was a clear signal the title would not change hands. (As an aside, here is another issue. Zayn didn’t necessarily need to win the WWE Universal Titles. That isn’t really part of his story. But that is also something else we’ll get to in a minute.) As for the Rhodes/Zayn promo, it was wholly unnecessary. Zayn’s story is about him having the belief in himself and standing on his own two feet. It isn’t about finding validation or acceptance from people that don’t really care about him. And, in this story, why would Rhodes care at all about Zayn? Rhodes left the company in May of 2016, about seven weeks after Zayn’s last match in NXT. Rhodes feuded with Seth Rollins when he initially returned. There is no reason why Rhodes should care about Zayn, or why Zayn should care what Rhodes thinks. They have the same goal in mind – taking down Roman Reigns – but Rhodes is doing it for championships and legacy. Zayn is doing it because he wants to take down the schoolyard bully while building himself back up from scratch. There is absolutely no overlap which is why as good as their back-and-forth was, it was for another story, or even for before the Rumble to give Sami a pep-talk leading to him crossing Roman. That, on top of the Heyman promo, were either out of place or telegraphed the finish. Neither is successful for the story of Sami, Jey, Roman, and The Bloodline.
For good bully/bullied stories to work, there needs to be a build-up of confidence (which Zayn started to exhibit while still on good terms with The Bloodline), a confrontation with the bully (the Chamber match), and the bully needs to either A) lose or B) see the error of their ways and reform. Sometimes, it’s both. The legendary Simpsons episode ‘Bart The General’ doesn’t work if instead of Nelson Muntz getting pelted with water balloons and tied up in a pushcart, he dodges the water balloons and hangs Bart by his underwear off a flagpole. They eventually make peace and that is part of this story as well (which should happen between Reigns and Zayn, even if it’s years down the road). For another pop culture reference, as bad as Season 8 of Game of Thrones was, at least they made the right choice (***** SPOILER WARNING***** though I find it hard to imagine having to do it for this show) by having Jon kill Dany. Imagine if Dany just roasts him in the finale and finishes the series ruling as a despot? It somehow could have finished worse, which seems unfathomable but here we are. Either way, Dany had to lose because of her actions.
That is what made the Chamber match weird. Yes, Sami was going to be received as a hero in his hometown no matter what. However, this was his pinnacle. He had re-found his confidence, he had stood up to the fragile boss, and he was going to take him down. And, hey, maybe Jey would even help.
Only, no he wasn’t. We had the promo from Rhodes a couple weeks earlier that made WWE’s intentions crystal clear. And it is unfair to Rhodes. He rebuilt his value when he left WWE, he is wildly popular with a large segment of the fanbase, and he looks to be the next Chosen One for them with Reigns now on a part-time schedule. But WWE simply gave a story between Zayn and The Bloodline that had been probably the best story since Daniel Bryan’s Yes-tleMania run and among the best storries they have ever told, period. When a story this good happens, there has to be a payoff. Not paying it off gives an air of so what? We invest week in and week out for 10 months (and, really, two and a half years) and the result is… the bully wins? If that’s going to be the reward for many (100? 200?) hours of attention spent on this one story, then so what? Why invest in these stories? It’s like re-watching Game of Thrones. Remember how good those first four seasons were? And how even five and six look pretty good in retrospect? Almost none of it matters because of how it finished. It took years to recover (and is not to the same level, yet) and careers were altered forever.
That is why the finish to the Chamber match was so wholly unfulfilling. Yes, the Rhodes promo weeks earlier made it clear what would happen. By the same token, there was a feeling of “they can’t possibly not pay off this generational story, can they?” And they didn’t. As good as the match was, two ref bumps, a non-chair shot, an accidental spear, and a whole lot of messiness eventually led to Roman getting the three-count and Sami losing. The bully wins. The bullied lost. The crux of the story – Jey – could have helped the bullied party, showed up and didn’t help, and got speared by Sami for his efforts. This currently unparalleled wrestling story ends with Bran as King of the Seven Kingdoms.
Of course, there is always the chance this isn’t the end. It wasn’t long ago where KofiMania ran wild even after he lost in the Chamber match in February 2019 but still ended up winning the title at WrestleMania a number of weeks later, eventually working his way into the match. It could happen and there is a good story to tell there with Rhodes and Zayn having different motivations but mutual respect and a common foe who is starting to lose his grip on his dominance.
The first difference between KofiMania and this is Reigns. His undefeated streak could push 1000 days. He has been the unified champion for almost a year, and a world champion for two and a half. When he loses, it’s going to be to the next face of the company. Back in 2019, there were two championships so there was one they could use in the non-Brock Lesnar feuds. There was no one besides Kofi that the company wanted to ‘make’ with a win (besides, perhaps, a face Seth Rollins going over Brock Lesnar). Rhodes is the second difference and the company’s intentions are clear: he’s the man that’s going to be made.
There are always chances of a swerve here. Zayn could get inserted into a Triple Threat and that leads to a Rhodes/Zayn feud after ‘Mania while Reigns takes a vacation. They could make it a Fatal Four-Way with Jey in the match, too, as he completes his arc to being the rebellious force against Roman’s reign once again. As always, Card Is Subject To Change. However, it sure seems as if we’re on course for a Rhodes/Reigns main event at WrestleMania with Cody going over while Zayn/Owens reunite to take down the Usos, which is where we were a month ago after the Rumble.
That is part of what makes this feel unsatisfying. The real magic of The Bloodline is not knowing necessarily what to expect next. Everything from Jey challenging Roman, to Jimmy saving Jey and them starting it all, to Solo showing up from NXT, to the Ucey chants and Zayn becoming an integral part of the faction. Not knowing what was around the bend – except Roman’s grip on his power slowly loosening – was a big part of the joy each week. What happened at the Chamber had been telegraphed for perhaps a month, and at least two weeks, which is unusual for this story. However, knowing where they want to end up, it’s not surprising.
The other part is that it’s an incomplete story. If Rhodes is the one to take down Reigns, well, good for him! He has found his self-worth, and his wrestling worth, over the last 6-7 years and he’s worked hard for this, especially given that brutal pec injury. But this isn’t the story that was told. The story being told was that The Bloodline was going to take down The Head Of The Table, possibly led by Jey, but certainly with an enthusiastic and confident Sami Zayn. And if Jey and Sami didn’t do it individually, they’d do it together. None of that happened, and now it looks like Rhodes/Reigns is the destination.
Kazeem Famuyide said something on his February 20, 2023 Masked Man Show podcast with David Shoemaker that is important (to paraphrase): these guys will be intertwined forever. Just how they could run Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty matches years after their tag team split (or Michaels split the team, rather), or Hulk Hogan and Macho Man, or, more recently, any angle involving former The Shield members, fans invested so much in this story that in three years, they can do a Zayn/Jey angle, or an Owens/Reigns angle, or any sort of combination. This story, in its entirety, isn’t over. But we’re talking years down the road and that’s if they all stay in the WWE (Reigns and Rhodes may both have interests that take them elsewhere in the not-too-distant future). Again, outside of a huge swerve in the next six weeks, this story looks done for now, and the finish of the bully winning feels about as satisfying as having communion wafers for supper.
Cliffy's hell-hole 