I made a mistake. So did a lot of wrestling fans, and so did my colleagues. In fact, one of my colleagues just repeated that same mistake.
We all counted out Sami Zayn.
Despite most of our staff wanting to pick Zayn in the triple threat match for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Night of Champions against champion Cody Rhodes and Gunther, we unanimously predicted anyone but Zayn would win. Then, in an upset, Zayn pinned Rhodes to win his first world title.
Not even ten days removed from his improbable
victory, Zayn defends his title tonight on Raw against Rhodes in a rematch. In his preview for the show, Cain A. Knight dismissed the new champ’s chances of retaining, writing, “That WWE is rushing this title match is a big warning sign that Zayn will already lose the belt.”
Me? I’m not making that mistake again. Instead, I’m calling it right now.
Sami Zayn will retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.
I can’t tell you how. Hell, I don’t even want to know how. That’s what tuning in is for. But by hook or crook, Zayn is walking out of Chicago with the title. And if, nay, when that happens, it’s the right call.
Looking at the World Heavyweight Championship picture, it appears WWE is saving champion Roman Reigns for an eventual showdown against Oba Femi, whenever those two meet.
With one title seemingly on lockdown, that only leaves the Undisputed WWE Championship in play. And as our Night of Champions predictions post indicated, most of us assumed that Rhodes would retain the title heading into SummerSlam.
But now Zayn is the champion, and few expect him to hold the title for long. For that reason, Zayn is the perfect guy to hold WWE’s richest prize for the foreseeable future.
Former WWE star Stevie Richards recently complimented Zayn on his podcast, The Stevie Richards Show, for the interest and speculation Zayn’s brief run has already created. But what makes Zayn necessary sounds like an insult, given his spotty win-loss record in recent months.
“Sami can get beat because… he has been beat almost to dust,” Richards said. By having a “beatable” champion, Richards pondered if that might entice fans to subscribe to ESPN to watch WWE’s premium live events on the hope of seeing a title change because Zayn is someone who can and will lose.
Richards went on, saying that beatable champions are usually heels, which Zayn’s current character as “The Last Real Good Guy” borders on. That assessment calls to mind the Honky Tonk Man, who had one of the greatest title runs in WWE history.
Like Zayn, Honky’s Intercontinental title win over Ricky Steamboat in 1987 was viewed as an upset. Many predicted that it was only a matter of time before he lost the title. Instead, Honky frustrated fans and gained more heat as he continued to outmaneuver stars such as Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, and Brutus Beefcake to hold on to the gold.
In the process, Honky had one of the longest I.C. title reigns in company history, which led to a star-making performance at SummerSlam 1988 when the Ultimate Warrior smashed him in under a minute.
Similarly, Zayn’s unlikely title reign could do the same thing for someone else the longer it goes on. If WWE leans into him as a heel, fans may give the person who beats him a hero’s reception as they did for Warrior.
Conversely, if WWE rides with Zayn as a plucky underdog and fans embrace him fully as a face again, the despicable villain who ends this fairy-tale story should earn full contempt from fans, setting that person up for either a long run or for positioning someone else for a crowning moment.
Zayn, as champion, gives WWE options and buys them time as they figure out what to do next. More importantly, Zayn brings uncertainty into storylines at a time when WWE’s booking seems predictable. The longer his run goes on, the more people may want to tune in to see who ends it, how, and when.
But it won’t be Cody Rhodes. At least not tonight.
