Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn is gearing up for a major rematch, which will take place at the upcoming Crown Jewel premium live event.

On November 7 – with the show still being promoted as taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Zayn will face off against World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns to crown the third-ever Crown Jewel Champion.

Only one of these champions will get to add their names to the lineage of this ultimate championship, following Cody Rhodes in 2024 and Seth Rollins in 2025.

Amid speculation about who will win out of Roman and Sami – providing there won’t be any last-minute changes – former WWE Champion Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal) has shared a bold pitch for how this match should go.

Discussing the possibility of Reigns quickly squashing Zayn, Dhesi noted on Busted Open:

“Sami Zayn gets squashed by Roman, because Sami to me is a chicken s**t heel champion. I don’t need him to go fifty-fifty with Roman, and all of a sudden he’s elevated, and now the crowds appreciate him, and now they start to cheer him.

“That’s a very big risk we run in this situation with this match. It might be a bit of a controversial statement, we don’t give Sami that incredible match.”

Dhesi’s comments have fuelled online discourse, with fans questioning, should Sami Zayn be squashed by Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel?

Elimination Chamber 2023

If Reigns does squash Zayn, their match would be in stark contrast to their Elimination Chamber 2023 bout.

At this event, Sami Zayn challenged for Roman Reigns’ WWE Undisputed Universal Championship, having turned his back on the Bloodline and struck the Tribal Chief with a chair at Royal Rumble earlier that year.

This match went on for 32 minutes, with the Honorary Uce putting in such a hardfought effort that some fans believed – even for just a moment – that the challenger would win WWE’s top title on the road to WrestleMania 39.

With this being Zayn and Reigns’ most recent singles encounter, many fans are expecting a similar calibre match steeped in Bloodline lore on November 7. A squash match would be shocking, but would it be the right move?

In favor

As Raj Dhesi explained, one reason for having Reigns squash Zayn would be to throw out any risk of Zayn getting over with the live crowd.

Zayn has been presented as a “chicken s**t” heel in recent weeks, however the star usually receives huge positive reactions in Saudi Arabia.

Having Zayn hit the showers early could be a good way to avoid having Zayn inadvertently turned face by the crowd reactions.

Another reason for a Roman squash victory would be to continue to build the Tribal Chief as an unstoppable force. With the likes of Oba Femi, Penta and Bron Breakker waiting in the wings, there are a number of stars who could benefit from dethroning Roman Reigns, and the eventual title change will mean a lot more if Reigns proves that he is unequivocally the better world champion.

Not so fast…

While the above points do make sense on paper, the Crown Jewel Championship match being a squash would no-doubt piss a lot of people off.

Going back to the point about Sami Zayn historically receiving huge reactions from crowds in Saudi Arabia, heavily advertising Zayn for the show for it to pretty much be a rug pull would leave a sour taste in the mouth of fans who attended the show for the WWE Champion.

Similarly, I feel a lot of people who make pitches like this forget that WWE is meant to be entertaining, not just an avenue to tell never-ending stories.

Thanos destroying Hulk at the beginning of Avengers Infinity War worked because audiences still had two and a half hours of story to go following that surprise, with Thanos basically becoming the main character from that point on.

If the final battle in Endgame was Tony Stark immediately snapping his fingers and Thanos disappearing, the drive home from the movie theater would be awfully quiet, with everyone dissatisfied.

The only difference is, WWE fans are paying a lot more to watch events than it cost in 2019 to go to the movies. Considering the general sentiment among fans online was that Money in the Bank felt lackluster, having your world champion vs world champion match end in a matter of seconds would be enough for some fans to cancel their Netflix, Peacock and ESPN subscriptions and solely watch HBO Max, if you catch my drift.

Also, Sami Zayn is still the WWE Champion. It’s a ludicrous idea to make the holder of the single most prestigious championship in the company look weak because it then means nothing when someone dethrones him.

So should Roman Reigns squash Sami Zayn at Crown Jewel? Only if WWE and TKO hate money.