When Sami Zayn's time as part of The Bloodline began winding down, WWE fans started getting behind him in a big way. Similar to Daniel Bryan and the Yes Movement in 2014, fans got behind him in the hope he could dethrone Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber.
It didn't happen and, while Zayn still headlined WrestleMania in a tag team match, the momentum he'd gained has since been mostly lost. WWE never accounted for him becoming such a red-hot fan-favourite and the Undisputed Tag Team Champion has reflected on the fallout from his loss in an interview with Ryan Satin.
"It was a little hard if you want the truth...I'm not the chosen guy, obviously. I've been handed a lot of opportunities and I've delivered on a lot of those opportunities throughout my time in the company and I'm grateful for all of it, but I don't think anyone would say like, 'Oh, clearly he was being positioned to be the top guy or to be the most popular guy on the show.' Obviously, that's not the case, and that's fine."
Zayn would go on to say he'd hoped WWE had that level of faith in him, reflecting on how fans similarly got behind the likes of Daniel Bryan, Becky Lynch, and Kofi Kingston.
However, whereas the time was right for them to rocket to the top of the card by winning the title, Zayn knows that wasn't meant to be in his case.
"It's like a lightning-in-the-bottle type of thing. You don't get it very often, and then you kind of get it, and the story, the audience, your performance...it's just gotten you to the exact right place that you dreamed you'd be, and then when you get there, you just kind of fall short and you don't know if you'll ever get it back. So for sure that's hard and you don't know if you can do it again."
Acknowledging that "I got a lot out of that story," Zayn added: "I don't have bad things to say about anything involving that story, but if you're asking me was it a tough pill to swallow to come that close and not quite make it? I'd be lying if I said, 'No, it didn't bother me at all.' For sure there was a part of me that had problems digesting that."
While Zayn dethroning Roman Reigns in his hometown to become Undisputed WWE Universal Champion would have been something of a fairytale ending to The Bloodline story, it perhaps came too soon.
By that point, Cody Rhodes had already been lined up to challenge the Tribal Chief weeks later at WrestleMania, and Zayn winning the title would have thrown that into disarray, as well as prematurely ending Reigns' record-setting title run before intended.
What WWE should have done, and the same argument was made after Drew McIntyre lost at last September's Clash at the Castle, was find a way to split the titles. That way, Sami could have won and Reigns could have carried on breaking those records.
What do you think?