Sami Zayn will challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship this coming Saturday at the Elimination Chamber 2023 pay-per-view. Zayn will have the home-field advantage with the show being in his hometown of Montreal and is riding a massive wave of momentum given how fans reacted to him finally turning his back on The Bloodline at the Royal Rumble. Paul Heyman then confirmed this week that, per Reigns’ orders, The Usos won’t be allowed at the arena for the match. But regardless of all of that, many fans still don’t expect Zayn to pull off an upset given recent backstage reports and the fact that WWE is already advertising (and pushing on episodes of Raw) Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39 in April.ย
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The early betting odds for the show were recently released by BetOnline and have Reigns heavily favored to beat Zayn at the show. It also has Austin Theory and Asuka favored to win the two Elimination Chamber matches. Check out the full betting lines below:
WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 Card
- Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (-2000) vs. Sami Zayn (+700)
- United States Championship: Austin Theory (-115) vs. Seth Rollins (+150) vs. Montez Ford (+500) vs. Bronson Reed (+800) vs. Damian Priest (+900) vs. Johnny Gargano (+1400) (Elimination Chamber)
- Raw Women’s Championship No. 1 Contenders: Asuka (-1250) vs. Raquel Rodriguez (+400) vs. Liv Morgan (+900) vs. Nikki Cross (+1400) vs. Carmella (+2000) vs. Natalya (+2500) (Elimination Chamber)
- Edge & Beth Phoenix (-600) vs. Finn Balor & Rhea Ripley (+350)
While some have compared Zayn’s rise in stardom and impending absence from WrestleMania to what happened with Daniel Bryan leading up to WrestleMania XXX, Zayn has already pushed back on that comparison in interviews. He spoke with Ariel Helwani prior to the Royal Rumble and didn’t think fans would try to revolt against the match if he wasn’t in it. Zayn never entered the match (per Reigns’ orders to remain backstage until the main event) and the Men’s Rumble went off without a hitch as Rhodes won from the No. 30 spot.ย
“I’m sure there are a lot of people pulling for me. That’s great. It’s nice to be that guy. But I don’t think it’s at a place where like Daniel Bryan was I believe in 2014, where anybody but him is going to be a disaster. And it actually was, so they had to fix it,” Zayn said at the time. “Whether it’s Cody, whether it’s anybody, if it’s done right you can do almost anything, you know? It has to be done well. It has to be done just right. If it’s not done right, could there be some kind of backlash to ‘man, the story made the most sense. He was the guy the fans liked. Everything was right there but they went this way’, and if they don’t do it right there is the possibility of contempt towards whoever that person is.”
