WWE WrestleMania 39: Does WWE See Sami Zayn as Main Event Material?

For close to a calendar year now, Sami Zayn has been the weekly standout on WWE programming. Not since Daniel Bryan’s 2013-14 pursuit of the WWE Championship or Becky Lynch’s 2018-19 hunt for the top prizes in the women’s division has a WWE superstar experienced such a ground-swelling of fan support. After being defeated by actor Johnny Knoxville in a comedy match at WWE WrestleMania 38, Zayn sought direction in The Bloodline, joining Roman Reigns’s über-serious Anoa’i family stable as an overly-eager “honorary uce.” Even after Zayn was booted from the faction at WWE Royal Rumble this past January, crowd reactions made it clear that the former NXT Champion was as popular, if not more, on his own.

Despite many fans clamoring for Zayn to either defeat Reigns at WWE Elimination Chamber or be inserted into the WWE WrestleMania 39 main event, WWE remained locked in on their plans for Cody Rhodes to challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at April’s Showcase of the Immortals. From there, reports emerged that while WWE valued his talents, it does not see Zayn as someone who could be the face of the company.

That illustrious superlative aside, WWE reportedly does see Zayn as a “top star.” Fightful Select spoke with a “WWE higher-up” who pushed back on past reports that downplayed Zayn’s spot in the company, even teasing that it was no coincidence that the company specifically booked WWE Elimination Chamber in Montreal.

“He’s headlined a PPV, he is the focal point of our biggest shows. He’s main eventing WWE Raw and is ‘1B’ for the biggest storyline in the company. Elimination Chamber didn’t happen in his hometown by accident,” the source told Fightful. “For anyone to say that we don’t view him as a top guy just hasn’t been watching the program or are fabricating things. We had a solid set of plans in order both for him and the championship. Just because he isn’t competing for the championship, doesn’t mean he isn’t viewed at that level. He’s been the MVP since last summer, and I couldn’t see many disagreeing with that point.”

As the source mentions, Zayn is still in a top program heading into WWE WrestleMania 39, as he and Kevin Owens as challenging The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles. This feud’s segments have regularly closed episodes of Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown and have generated some of the loudest crowd reactions throughout. While it is unclear if this tag bout will main event WWE WrestleMania 39 Night One, it is said to be high in the running for that spot.

WWE WrestleMania 39 goes down this Saturday, April 1st and this Sunday, April 2nd.