WWE Night of Champions is in the bag and we have a new WWE Champion after Sami Zayn unexpectedly pinned Cody Rhodes to win the title.
Zayn rolled up Rhodes while he was attempting a CrossRhodes and got the one, two, three to a huge pop in front of a Saudi crowd clearly keen to see Zayn win out.
It makes a ten year journey for Zayn in WWE in which he has become a firm fan favourite and delivered some of the best character work in the company.
Nevertheless, as with every WWE event and big match finish, this one has left some fans raging.
In fact, over on social media, a big section of the WWE Universe are absolutely slating the company and Triple H for putting the belt on Zayn.
WWE fans can’t believe they’ve made Sami Zayn WWE Champion
Seeing Zayn win the title will, for some, feel like a massive moment that – in the eyes of an American audience – has been wasted in the Middle East.
That’s not to say the crowd in Riyadh didn’t love the event, far from it.
But over on social media, fans have been calling out Triple H and WWE for what’s been called a ridiculous decision.
“Unfollowed WWE. Unsubscribed to Netflix. Triple H with the worst decision of all time. Hope Sami Zayn loses the title before the end of the year”, one enraged fan wrote on X.
Another suggested that WWE were ‘pandering to Saudi sponsors and shareholders’ given Zayn’s religious beliefs, while another claimed Triple H had ‘stooped to a new low’ by putting the belt on him.
The annoyance continued, with another fan writing:
“This Sami Zayn push needs to be studied. Weirdest c–p I’ve seen in a minute.”
Another called it ‘terrible booking’, while another claimed that ‘nobody outside of Saudi Arabia wanted to see this happen’.
Still, what this does do is open up WWE to fresh angles.
It allows Oba Femi to have a run at Zayn to potentially win the title after his King of the Ring win and at the same time, protects both Rhodes and Gunther from losing to Oba.
Furthermore, with the Bloodline 2.0 story also in full swing and Zayn’s history with that faction, it opens the door for them to revisit that in a way they see fit.
Could we see Roman Reigns dethrone Zayn to take all the gold again? Don’t back against it at this rate!
