Sami Zayn’s WWE Championship challenge against Roman Reigns at WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 remains one of the most emotionally charged main events in recent WWE history. In front of a fiercely supportive hometown crowd in Montreal, Zayn entered the match as the man many fans believed should finally end Reigns’ historic reign at the top of the company.
It did not happen. Reigns left Montreal with the WWE Championship still in his possession, extending a title run that ultimately reached 1,316 days. Yet the question surrounding that night has never entirely gone away: should Zayn have won?
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Zayn revisited the debate and made clear that he understands why so many viewers felt the moment was there for him. At the same time, he expressed uncertainty about how a title change would have altered the stories WWE was building toward at the time.
“At the time, I thought there was a case to be made for it,” Zayn said. “But going back to the domino effect thing, I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t think it’s ludicrous to say I should have. If you were watching at that time, I think anybody could have made that argument.”
For more background on this topic, read Sami Zayn Explains Why Johnny Knoxville Was the Perfect WrestleMania 38 Opponent.
A Montreal Moment Built Over Months
Zayn’s opportunity at Elimination Chamber was not a conventional title-match setup. His rise to the main event had been shaped by one of WWE’s most layered and popular long-term stories: his association with The Bloodline.
For months, Zayn had worked his way into the orbit of Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman. What began with Zayn attempting to win acceptance from Reigns’ group developed into an increasingly complicated relationship, particularly as the honorary member of The Bloodline showed genuine loyalty and created a close connection with Jey Uso.
The story reached its decisive turning point at the Royal Rumble. After Reigns retained his championship, Zayn finally turned against The Tribal Chief, striking him with a chair. The act set up the Montreal showdown and transformed Zayn from a beloved supporting player within a major faction angle into a credible challenger for WWE’s biggest prize.
That transition was significant because the reaction was not limited to the city hosting Elimination Chamber. Zayn had become one of the promotion’s most supported performers across the broader audience. Montreal, however, gave the situation an added personal dimension. Zayn was competing in his home city, against the dominant champion at the center of WWE’s biggest storyline, at the exact point where the crowd’s belief in him was at its peak.
It created the kind of atmosphere that can make an expected result feel uncertain. Even with Reigns’ WrestleMania direction looming, the audience response in Montreal made the possibility of Zayn winning feel real.
Zayn Sees The Argument, But Also The Complications
In reflecting on the match, Zayn did not present a definitive answer that he was unquestionably supposed to leave Elimination Chamber as champion. Instead, he recognized both sides of a question that remains central to how fans look back on the event.
There was a powerful argument for Zayn. The emotional investment was immense, the setting was ideal, and his journey out of The Bloodline had given him a level of momentum that few challengers had managed to build against Reigns. For viewers caught up in the moment, a victory would have felt like the natural payoff to a story centered on friendship, manipulation, betrayal and redemption.
But Zayn also pointed to the importance of timing and the other major direction WWE was pursuing. Cody Rhodes was also gaining significant momentum heading toward WrestleMania 39, and the wider championship picture was building toward something beyond the Elimination Chamber main event.
“But it was just again timing, and Cody was also red hot at that time, and they were building to something,” Zayn said. “Then it leads to Cody the next year, and then it’s more gratifying. Whatever it is, just yeah, I don’t know. Could, should, would—would it have worked? I think so. But who’s to say?”
Zayn’s answer reflects the challenge of revisiting any major wrestling decision after the full story has played out. A title change in Montreal may have delivered one unforgettable moment, but it also could have changed the chain of events that followed. WWE stories often rely on decisions producing consequences well beyond a single premium live event, and Zayn’s phrasing about a “domino effect” speaks directly to that reality.
It is possible to see the strength of the case for Zayn without dismissing the eventual direction. That is part of why Elimination Chamber 2023 remains so memorable. The audience had enough faith in the challenger, and enough emotional investment in the story, that the result still invites serious debate years later.
The WrestleMania 39 Payoff Took A Different Form
Although Zayn did not defeat Reigns for the WWE Championship in Montreal, his WrestleMania 39 destination remained enormous. He headlined night one of the event alongside Kevin Owens, challenging The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championships.
Zayn and Owens defeated Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso to win the titles, giving Zayn another major WrestleMania moment and providing a meaningful conclusion to key parts of the Bloodline story. The match was especially resonant because of Zayn’s history with Jey, whose relationship with Zayn had become one of the most important emotional threads in the entire saga.
That outcome did not erase the desire among many fans to see Zayn win the singles championship in Montreal. The two achievements represent different kinds of payoff. The Elimination Chamber scenario would have crowned Zayn as the man to defeat Reigns in his hometown. WrestleMania instead placed him and Owens in a tag team championship main event and allowed Zayn to defeat two men who had been central to his time within The Bloodline.
Both paths carried substantial emotional weight, but they were not interchangeable. Zayn’s comments acknowledge precisely that tension. He can see how a championship victory in Montreal could have worked while also understanding why WWE stayed the course with its broader plans.
Why The Debate Has Endured
Not every heavily supported challenger becomes champion, and not every near-miss remains part of the wrestling conversation. Zayn’s Elimination Chamber challenge has endured because it felt larger than a standard failed title bid. It was the culmination of a character journey that had evolved in front of the audience for an extended period of time.
The crowd in Montreal was not simply cheering for a local favorite. It was responding to the full arc: Zayn’s efforts to belong, his reluctant realization of who Reigns was, his decision to stand up to him, and the belief that he had earned the chance to change the entire landscape of WWE.
Reigns’ victory preserved the championship reign and maintained WWE’s planned direction. Zayn’s defeat, however, did not diminish his standing with the audience. If anything, the intensity of the reaction confirmed that he had reached a rare level as a performer capable of carrying a main-event story on emotion and character work as much as athletic competition.
Zayn’s present-day perspective is therefore measured rather than bitter. He is not rejecting the argument that he should have won, nor is he claiming the decision was obviously wrong. He is recognizing that the moment was strong enough to justify the question while accepting that major creative choices are connected to everything that comes after them.
For Zayn, the answer remains appropriately unresolved. He believes a Montreal title win could have worked. He believes fans had every reason to want it. But he also sees the timing, Cody Rhodes’ momentum and the eventual WrestleMania path as factors that make any simple answer difficult.
That uncertainty may be the clearest sign of how special WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 was. The match generated a genuine sense that the expected outcome could be overturned, and it left behind a compelling wrestling what-if that continues to resonate. Zayn did not leave Montreal as WWE Champion, but his challenge against Reigns remains one of the defining performances of his career.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.