Not everyone within WWE was reportedly on board with the decision to put the WWE Championship back on Sami Zayn.
Zayn captured the title from CM Punk on the September 11 episode of WWE SmackDown in Mexico City, beginning his second reign as WWE Champion.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter at F4WOnline.com that he was told WWE’s reasoning behind the title change will eventually become clear and “make sense in the end.”
“Zayn’s title win was interesting and notable,” Meltzer wrote. “I don’t think anyone saw it coming, although with hindsight you can see it has been in the works for weeks.”
Meltzer noted that there was some disagreement internally over the decision, while WWE has also established several potential challengers for Zayn.
“I was only told that it will be clear the reasons and will make sense in the end, even though not everyone was on board with the idea. They’ve been building up a plethora of opponents for him, Kevin Owens, Gunther, Finn Balor, as well as Punk, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton.”
Another factor could be WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, where Zayn could enter the show as champion and potentially compete in the Crown Jewel main event.
“In addition, he can go into Saudi Arabia as a champion in the Crown Jewel main event, which avoids the issue of having Roman Reigns beat CM Punk twice, or Reigns losing to Punk,” Meltzer wrote.
Zayn’s victory marked the fifth WWE Championship change of 2026.
Drew McIntyre defeated Cody Rhodes for the championship on the January 9 episode of SmackDown before Rhodes regained the title on March 6. Zayn then won the championship in a three-way match at Night of Champions, only to lose it to Punk on July 6.
Zayn’s September 11 victory over Punk kicked off his second WWE Championship reign.
