Sami Zayn finally won his world championship. After more than a decade of consistently being one of the best side characters on WWE programming, Triple H and the writers unexpectedly gave him his moment. The former indie darling turned NXT favorite turned midcard standout turned Bloodline comedic relief turned last real good guy pinned Cody Rhodes last night in Saudi Arabia to become the WWE Champion. The moment received a raucous ovation from the Night Of Champions crowd, but if fans on social are to be believed, his reign probably isn’t going to last long.
To be clear, that’s not to say fans weren’t celebrating loudly. They were. Those of us who have followed his career for a long time were hammering the like button on so many celebratory tweets and fun career montages, as well as tribute posts from current and former wrestlers. It was a triumphant night for someone who deserved his flowers, but at the same time, people were also fantasy casting his demise.
It’s both a problem of timing and circumstance. We’re a little more than a month away from SummerSlam, which is (arguably) WWE’s second most important premium live event of the year after WrestleMania. Typically, whoever holds the WWE Championship wrestles in the main event of one of the two nights of the show, but fans are skeptical that WWE has enough confidence in Zayn to have him main event. He’s very popular amongst hardcore wrestling fans, but he’s not historically been someone the company has put on billboards to try and sell tickets, at least apart from his Elimination Chamber match against Roman Reigns when he left the Bloodline.
Consequently, one of two things is happening. Either WWE has reevaluated and decided they want to push Zayn as a proper main event guy heading into one of their biggest shows of the year, or there’s a larger plan that’s going to see him lose the belt before SummerSlam. I could honestly see either scenario playing out, but many fans are convinced it’s going to be option two, which will likely involve Brock Lesnar.
This is about to get really complicated, but I promise this theory makes logical sense. Oba Femi, who WWE is treating like the company’s next big star, just won the King Of The Ring tournament. That gives him the right to face a world champion of his choice at SummerSlam. Right now, his options are World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns or the recently anointed WWE Champion Sami Zayn. He’s been talking a little smack about Roman Reigns in recent weeks, but he’s been talking a lot more smack about Brock Lesnar, who he has been locked into a separate feud with for months.
Most fans wanted to see Femi win the King Of The Ring tournament, but many were skeptical he actually would because rumors have been swirling that WWE’s plan was to have him wrestle Lesnar at SummerSlam to finally put an end to their feud. If he were to face one of the World Champions and Lesnar, that would mean he would need to wrestle twice, unless, of course, Lesnar was one of those World Champions. That didn’t seem like a real possibility when the title holders were Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, but now that the belt is on Sami Zayn, some fans think it’s likely. Here’s an example of what I’m seeing on social media…
It’s so obvious they had Sami Zayn win the WWE title so he could get pinned by LesnarSeth is going to be Roman’s next title challenger so Lesnar Oba trilogy is gonna be for the WWE title pic.twitter.com/4rezQLpX1IJune 27, 2026
It’s definitely not just the above tweet either. Many plugged-in fans are being pretty vocal about the same exact theory. WWE has a Saturday Night’s Main Event coming up at Madison Square Garden, and the prevailing theory going around is that Lesnar will likely end up wrestling Zayn for the WWE Championship at that event. None of that has been announced, of course, but no one loves predicting the future like wrestling fans.
So, is it going to happen like that? I don’t know. I think there’s definitely a strong chance it will. If this were another time of the year, I’d expect Zayn to get a few months of run with the WWE Championship so he could properly celebrate, but I’m not convinced they’re going to let him carry it into SummerSlam for the same reason I didn't think he had a realistic chance of winning last night. He would be a huge underdog against Oba Femi if that’s the route they went, and I’m not sure fans are really clamoring to see him wrestle another match against Cody Rhodes, given we’ve been down that road plenty over the past few months.
Regardless, winning the WWE Championship is a huge deal, whether you hold the belt for five years or five minutes. Hall of Famers like Kane and Rey Mysterio only had one run each with the WWE Championship, and neither one even last two days. I’m sure they would have preferred longer runs, but what’s more important is they got a chance to be part of that exclusive club of WWE Champions. Now Sami Zayn is forever a member, and I couldn’t be happier for him, whether he’s about to lose the belt to Lesnar or not.
