Sami Zayn looks back at WWE Elimination Chamber 2023.
Sami Zayn walked into Montreal at WWE Elimination Chamber as the challenger to Roman Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Zayn's story had been building for months as he joined the Bloodline and then ultimately turned on Reigns when pushed too far.
The fans were behind Zayn and the story, but he ultimately fell short in his quest to gain gold.
Speaking to Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Zayn was asked if he thought he should have won on that night.
"One thing is, I don't know if there is a 'should have.' It's hard to evaluate on a long enough timeline. It's been (a year and a few months) since that. Seeing how it all panned out, let's say that is where the title switch happened. Everything that has happened in the last year and a half, and there has been a lot of great programming, doesn't happen the same. It's the butterfly effect. One thing changes, all these things change. You can go back to big moments and big matches, like Brock (Lesnar) ending the (The Undertaker's) streak. When it happened, I was in NXT at the time, I was watching it with Juice Robinson. He was so shocked and he goes, 'It's going to take me five years to know if this was the right decision or not.' It's kind of true. It's like drafting someone in sports. You draft someone and it takes five years to know if it was the right call. It's hard to say. There is no way for me to not answer this with bias. I am biased because it was me, it was that story, it was that point in time, in that place, in front of that crowd.
"All I'm going to say is, if I had won that night, it would have been something that lived on forever. I get that it's a longer story that you're telling with Roman, and Cody is waiting in the wings, but if I'm looking at it in a bubble, in a vacuum, unquestionably, if I win it that night, that's a moment that lives on forever. Not just as me, in that moment. As a fan, we ultimately gravitate towards special moments, special audiences, special times when everybody is collectively in a moment that you know will live forever. That would have been one of those moments. I don't think there is any denying that. Whether it was the right moment for business or right choice or wrong choice, that stuff takes years to figure out. If I'm looking at it in a vacuum, all I can say is that if I had won that night, it would have gone down in history as one of the greatest moments that lived on in 10, 20 years, and you'd still be watching back just for the crowd reaction, if nothing else."
Though Zayn did not win the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WWE Elimination Chamber, he did headline night one of WrestleMania 39, winning the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles alongside Kevin Owens by defeating The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso).
Zayn is now the reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion. He will defend the title against Bron Breakker at WWE SummerSlam.
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