At this point, the Bloodline storyline seems destined to go down as one of the great – if not the greatest – professional wrestling storyline of all time.
While it isn’t yet clear how the wider story will resolve, the upcoming match between Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber seems set to put a pin in their ongoing rivalry, which has been the crux of the angle over the past few months.
While the outcome of their match seems all but certain, with Roman on his way to face Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes at this year’s WrestleMania, many are still holding out hope that Sami will get his due after a relentless campaign of psychological and physical abuse from the Tribal Chief.
But what if it doesn’t go down the way we’re all expecting? What if something completely insane happens, giving us a different outcome to the one we’re all expecting? It isn’t likely – Roman seems sure to put on a dominant performance like he always does – but what if the unthinkable happens?
With that in mind, here are a few potential unexpected outcomes to Sami Zayn vs Roman Reigns at this year’s Elimination Chamber:
Sami Wins Clean
I mean, could you even imagine?
This is what we in the fantasy booking business call: good booking, bad business.
While it would be a hell of a swerve for Sami to win clean, this is the only version of events that totally undermines an eventual big money Cody vs Roman match.
How so? Well, in this version of events, even if Roman gets his belts back before WrestleMania (meaning the ‘Mania card doesn’t actually need to be changed and he faces cody as planned), he’ll have already given up his three year undefeated streak – i.e the thing that makes him stand out from the crowd – to a theoretically weaker competitor.
It’s like… could you imagine if they actually did manage to bring the Rock back, and they had Drew Gulak pin him on the WrestleMania go-home show? It would kind of kill some of his mystique, right?
That being said… it would be a hell of an outcome, wouldn’t it?
Can you imagine if Sami goes into this match – the ultimate underdog, in the death slot right before ‘Mania – and wins a normal match completely clean against the Tribal Chief?
We simply mustn’t allow ourselves to hope… and yet…
Jey Screws Sami
Okay, we got the fun one out of the way. Now we’re in to “outcomes that will make you cry” territory.
One of the better parts of the Bloodline story has been the friendship between Sami Zayn and Jey Uso.
The pair have gone from adversarial, to Sami winning Jey over, to the two now outright conspiring against the Tribal Chief.
Since Jey was really the protagonist of this story at the beginning, suffering the worst of Roman’s manipulation during the pandemic era of WWE, it’s been heartening seeing him finally fight back after two long years under his cousin’s thrall.
Which is why it’s going to be so heartbreaking on Saturday when he turns on Sami out of misguided loyalty to the Bloodline.
Will it be through coercion? Will Roman threaten to hurt Jimmy if Jey doesn’t do as he asks? Or will Jey reveal that he’s been playing both sides against the middle this entire time?
Either way, it’s going to be a real gut punch.
Kevin Screws Sami
Speaking of people turning on Sami Zayn, if it isn’t the king of gaslighting himself.
Sometimes I wonder if Kevin Owens has some kind of medical condition where if he doesn’t eventually turn on Sami Zayn in any given scenario he’ll come out in hives.
While that part wouldn’t be too unexpected – Owens turns on Zayn the way night will eventually fall at the end of every day – he isn’t actually supposed to be at this event at all, so even his presence would be a total surprise.
I guess I’m picturing it like this: Roman beats Sami (booo) and is about to fully Passion of the Zayn with a steel chair.
Owens comes out of nowhere and sends the Bloodline scattering out of the ring… right before picking up the chair himself and fully just pillmanizing Sami’s neck.
He then turns to Roman and unzips his hoodie to reveal a “Kevin Uso” shirt, and acknowledges his new Tribal Chief.
Would that be good conventional storytelling? Absolutely not. But would it be good wrestling storytelling? Also no.
But it sort of works, so it’s going on the list.
Cody Interferes
Like in the previous entry, it would both make absolutely sense whatsoever for Cody to show up, while also making complete sense in the soap opera world of wrestling.
There was a really possibility after the Royal Rumble that the crowd would have turned on Cody and tried to turn him heel
Thankfully for all involved that doesn’t seem to be the case, with Rhodes being just as firmly over as he was when he arrived in the company in April of last year.
That being said, if this was a conventional TV show, the blonde haired blue eyed nepo baby who just transferred here from another school would absolutely be the bad guy, and wouldn’t take kindly to having to share the spotlight.
If WWE were to go down that route, having Cody screw Sami at Elimination Chamber would be a great way to turn Cody heel (in front of an unforgiving Montreal crowd who have seen this kind of bulls**t happen often enough by now), while also giving Sami a legitimate path to WrestleMania.
Roman Squashes Sami
I think the one thing we’re all really expecting from this match is for it to be good.
Roman is no five star workhorse, but if Logan Paul can take him to a four-and-a-half star technical classic then I’m pretty sure El Generico can.
Can you imagine the look on everybody’s face, then, when Roman just spends three-to-four minutes ragdolling Zayn around before pinning him with one foot like the Big Show?
This would be such an insane way to end the Zayn/Roman feud that I kind of want them to do it.
It would be a complete betrayal of everything we’ve experienced up to this point, and it would probably kill Pete, but you can’t deny that it would be very funny.
Okay, maybe “funny” isn’t the right word.
Look, this is a list of unexpected outcomes, not good outcomes; just be happy we now live in a world where “babyface gets squashed in a disappointing and humiliating match by clearly superior ubermensch” is considered “unexpected” in WWE.
Sami Zayn Turns Heel
Sami Zayn is the best-booked babyface WWE has had in years.
The crowd is behind him, he’s got us chanting his name even when he isn’t there, and he’s about to step into a blow off feud in his hometown.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
Virtually every wrestler turns heel eventually (with the obvious exception of Sting, John Cena, and Otis, who will always be a babyface in my eyes), but timing is a pretty key factor when it comes to knowing when to pull the trigger.
Having Zayn turn heel here – maybe by turning on Jey after the match, or trying to cheat to win – would be just about the worst timing imaginable, but it would be a hell of a swerve.
Don’t forget: Zayn technically was a heel up until about two weeks ago. We just liked him. That isn’t the same as being a babyface.
Maybe Elimination Chamber would be a good place to remind people that just because somebody is the lesser of two evils, doesn’t make them good.
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