They had to see this coming!
Sami Zayn faced Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at the recent Elimination Chamber PLE, and, as expected, he failed to win the titles.
The Montreal crowd was understandably very disappointed, but the powers that be may have underestimated just how over Zayn is - everywhere!
This past Monday on Raw, Cody Rhodes made his way out to the ring to cut a promo on his WrestleMania opponent, The Tribal Chief, and the crowd began to chant for Sami. The American Nightmare is well-liked, but people really wanted to see Zayn with those belts, and clearly still want him in the title picture heading into 'Mania.
According to Dave Meltzer, WWE higher-ups were concerned about the chants, and cut the segment short by sticking Paul Heyman up on the monitor earlier than originally planned.
“They (WWE) were very concerned about Sami chants, which is one of the reasons why they got Heyman out there in seconds. They did not want Cody in there by himself because they thought that – it didn’t happen – but they did everything in their power to make sure they kept that moving, they did not allow the audience a chance to start chanting or anything like that, it was just back-and-forth. It was designed to give the audience no chance to chant because of the feeling that if they did it would hurt Cody’s momentum. And perhaps it would, and then it could create that groundswell (for Zayn) which is exactly what they don’t want right now.”
WWE made a smart move by having Cody encourage Sami ahead of his title match, but they now find themselves in a very precarious position.
Hopefully, whatever angle is building between Zayn, Kevin Owens and the Usos will be enough to distract the fanbase and get the majority of people behind Rhodes as the build towards WrestleMania continues.