After watching Smackdown last night and watching the Sami Zayn segment over and over on YouTube, there is no convincing me otherwise, that if Sami doesnt win the title, this Roman Reigns title reign will end in failure. People may not have turned on Cody Rhodes, but him winning the title will not produce anything close to the emotion, that Sami winning will have.
This is the kind of moment you can only hope and dream to achieve and it comes around so rarely. I’d love to see Sami and Kevin win the tag titles too, for sure, but this is the dream scenario at the start of this title run. Everything has lined up so perfectly. Just thinking of the pop if Sami wins and that feel good moment. The story deserves it. The performers deserve it.
With that said, I still dont expect it, but I have a really small bit of hope that they will come to their senses.
What about Roman losing at Wrestlemania night one, the show closing with Cody holding up the belts. Then night 2 starts Heyman comes out during during the first 2 seconds of some terrible Baron Corban and JBL segment and tells Cody to check the small print of the contract… He was only fighting for the Smackdown title or whatever so ‘And still your heavyweight champion…’ Roman returns, lifts the title.
Sami comes out to challenge him, Heyman says fine but first you have a little match against the USO’s. Sami and KO win, Sami takes the mother of all beat downs before Jay stops his brother showing that tension. In a change to the scheduled main event which was going to be The Tag Team main event we have Roman vs Sami, who comes to the ring limping like Brett Hart himself, only to win…and roman goes away until Summerslam.
Night 1 - No issues
Night 2 - Reads a little too much like an episode of Smackdown. The premise is ok, it just needs to be streamlined.
I can’t fix this without Sami winning the Universal title at EC. Everything I’ve tried to do at WM just takes away from Cody. If it’s in stone that Cody has to come away winning a belt at Mania. I can’t do anything with Sami at Mania that doesn’t reduce Cody.
My original idea was letting Cody have WM and then my idea takes place on Monday Night Raw…Raw after mania use to be huge, make it huge again, if you hint something is happening the crowd could be pumped, it would pretty much be night 3 of WM ha ha
Oh man, WWE needed Elimination Chamber to be anywhere else in the world EXCEPT Montreal. I don’t know how you solve the next six weeks and have maximized Sami, Cody and Roman when all is said and done.
And knowing WWE and what they’ve invested in that trio, I can’t think of a scenario where they don’t stick with Roman vs. Cody as the Mania direction. Then you just have to have Roman beat Sami and HOPE he can come out of it still as a main eventer.
And while that’s not my preference, to be honest, I would prefer that than pretending that you’re going with Sami (a la Kofi) and then booking him like shit as champ for a few months.
I have been wrong — and pleasantly surprised — by this storyline at every turn thus far. So, here’s hoping I am wrong again, even though I have no idea what that scenario looks like.
I think they need to have Sami & KO vs The Usos main event Night 1 if that is the direction they are going.
I just dont know how much trust I have after Wrestlemania, with how bad the tag division has been in WWE over the years. It does feel sort of deflating to know that Zayn & Owens will be in the tag division and not the main event scene, but there is potential for them to turn the division around with Zayn & Owens, Usos, Banger Bros, DIY, New Day(even though they are stale, there is fresh teams to work with). I’d bring up Pretty Deadly who I think are fantastic and being wasted in NXT. Even though I hope FTR stays in AEW, they could potentially come over.
I disagree with Drew. There was no story. It was just “PLE is taking place near this guys home, so maybe he should win.” It made no sense for Roman to lose at that point and Drew hasnt really recovered as a true main event guy since fans came back.
This situation has everything. It has the story, it has the chance to elevate someone, it has the hometown, it has pretty much the entire fanbase and most of all, it has been a draw.
You talk about WWE being hot all the time, this story is the reason. People are tuning in to see what these guys are going to do next. They arent tuning in to see which returning ex WWE guys they are going to fail to do anything with next. They arent tuning in to see the boring, meaningless matches that continue to polute these shows every week.
Sami Zayn should be rewarded with this win. Cody absolutely should have been the guy, if not for this story. Sami will never be as hot, as he is right now.
Nothing against Sami but a world champion should look like a world champion. Not a homeless person. He needs new ring gear or something else or nobody outside the IWC will ever take him serious.
Cody vs Sami won’t be as hot, but it would make sense if Roman vs Rock is happening. And while it feels a little tired, they could always have Roman get a rematch and do the triple threat trope.
I just hope the infrastructure for Peacock is better than Fox because while it was cool to think how electric the place was it made for rough viewing. Any good live videos?
Flawed for sure, but assuming the end goal remains Cody/Reigns for Mania, it’s what they had to do. I don’t think the Sami turn could’ve been put off any longer than the Rumble, and I don’t think the crowds would’ve accepted Cody if Sami didn’t get his shot first.
On the positive side, I am on record as not being a “hometown pop” guy, but that was one of the best and most genuine reactions I have ever seen during Sami’s entrance. And I thought they nailed the “Sami might win this” spots that they needed.
My main gripe was the pacing. I’m all for letting moments breathe, but it was like they knew they had to go 30 minutes, but didn’t quite know why or how. Which is classic Triple H main event style.
The big obstacle is — at least for today — who cares about Cody? Sami and the Bloodline is still THE angle in wrestling, and it’s not the Wrestlemania main event. Work to do over the next six weeks.
I’m not sure where they go from here - sure you can do Owens and Sami Vs Usos but right now that seems like a let down while the main issue remains with Roman.
Jey could come out fired up that he was speared and setup the tag match but still - unless it has an incredible build it will be a let down compared to how over Sami was
I do think they botched it last night. That could have been an all-time moment and a bit of fan service from HHH to the audience but they played it safe and it was an overbooked mess.
Just seeing the fan reactions is such a shame. You can’t give fans everything they want but I think you have to occasionally shock them. Roman could have killed Sami in 2 weeks on Smackdown and take away Samis WM Moment and creating another thread but instead they let the live fans down again