Kevin Owens And Sami Zayn Defeat The Usos As The Bloodline Begins To Crumble

WWE has spent the past couple of years building up Roman Reigns, The Usos and The Bloodline, but at WrestleMania 39, the first domino came crashing down—thanks to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

Since late 2020, Reigns’ stable had dominated both Raw and SmackDown, with the Usos becoming record-setting Undisputed Tag Team Champions and Reigns doing the same with the Universal Championship. Heralded by critics as WWE’s best storyline of all time, The Tribal Chief’s dominance and control over his real-life cousins always seemed destined to end with both the Usos and Reigns losing the titles that have defined them for much of the past 1,000 days.

While Reigns has a chance to keep The Bloodline afloat when he faces Cody Rhodes on Night Two of WrestleMania 39, Zayn and Owens created the first crack in the foundation of The Bloodline on Saturday when Zayn defeated Jey with three Helluva Kicks to an incredible reaction.

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In one of the most highly-anticipated tag team matches in WWE history, the reunited duo of Zayn and Owens defeated the Usos in an instant classic. And there was no more fitting beginning of the end than Zayn and Owens, two stars who’ve been thorns in the side of The Bloodline for much of its run, ultimately being the ones who are going to sink the ship.

Reigns, after all, is likely going bye-bye for a while after WrestleMania 39, with The Head of the Table expected to take a lengthy hiatus following the event. That explains why Reigns is likely to lose his world titles: WWE must move onto the next phase for The Bloodline, which is undoubtedly the breakup of the most dominant group WWE has ever had.

Given that The Bloodline has been WWE’s top draw and the No. 1 merchandise-moving machine for the company, some might wonder why WWE would break up the group. Well, all good things must come to an end, and the group has already hit its peak. In terms of quality storytelling, the only way to keep The Bloodline’s story arc going without it growing tiresome is to make a substantial change and ignite the downfall of Roman’s empire.

There is no bigger change than the group imploding, whether slowly or gradually. But given all of the moving parts, another long-term angle telling the story of the legendary stable’s downfall is the best route to take.

In fact, WWE reportedly already has as much as a year of post-WrestleMania 39 storylines involving The Bloodline mapped out in advance, and those stories should come to fruition as long as rumors of Vince McMahon returning to creative turn out to be untrue.

There are so many factors involved in this story beyond just Reigns and so many questions to consider about what the future of all these stars might hold. Do Zayn and Owens ultimately end up as enemies again? Are Jey and Jimmy Uso going to stick together? Will Solo Sikoa get a massive push? Will Jey finally step up to Reigns?

We don’t know the answers to any of these questions yet, but that is the beauty of The Bloodline’s greatness. Virtually everything the faction has touched over the past three years has turned into gold, and with Reigns transforming into such an amazing “final boss” villain, The Bloodline’s fall should be just as entertaining as its rise.

The Usos, Zayn, Owens and Sikoa have all been elevated to all-time highs thank to this storyline, and while Owens and Zayn’s big WrestleMania 39 title win over the Usos is the climax of this story so far, WWE has plenty of more intriguing storyline points to reach in the future. Even WWE CEO Nick Khan says WWE has “months” of storylines mapped out after WrestleMania.

For now, WWE and its fan can sit back and relish in the true greatness of The Bloodline’s climb to the top of WWE, but now that the first domino has fallen, it’s going to be a true sight to see it all burn.