Sami Zayn eyes the WWE Championship at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia

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Sami Zayn will get another chance to win a WWE Championship when he steps into the ring on Saturday against Cody Rhodes and Gunther at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.

Rhodes booked the match between the top two wrestlers on “Friday Night SmackDown” after Zayn’s special guest referee came under fire. He quickly counted Rhodes after his match with Gunther exploded in the ring. After Rhodes demanded that SmackDown GM Nick Aldis restart the match with a new referee, Gunther attacked Zayn. Then Zayn returned a favor. The match was booked and Zayn has one of his biggest challenges yet.

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Sami Zayn enters the ring during a WWE live event at Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain on June 4, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)

However, Zayn was in high spirits when he spoke to Pakinomist Digital ahead of the event.

“Good,” he said when asked how he was doing. “Look, anytime you’re main-eventing a big PLE, the fact that Saudi Arabia is always a little bit special to me, just being from this part of the world, obviously. And the fact that you’re main-eventing a WWE Championship.

“I don’t think there’s a better place to be, other than being the champion, which is the goal here. But other than being the champion, it’s the best place you could ask for. I really can’t complain.”

Zayn was born in Canada after his parents came to the country from Syria. If he wins the title, he would be the first WWE World Champion of Syrian descent.

He said it would be a big moment for him to win the title in Riyadh.

“I think it’s one of those things that would be kind of hard to process. I really don’t know. I don’t know how the fans would react,” he said. “I hope they would enjoy it, but you never know, because my character right now is kind of polarizing—I really don’t know. But I don’t know. I think there’s a lot of similar cultural and historical significance that maybe would hit me afterward.

Sami Zayn makes his SmackDown debut at the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky on May 22, 2026. (Craig Melvin/WWE)

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“From a sentimental point of view, I definitely think it would be something great. I think it would be a big cultural moment, actually. I don’t think about it. I kind of dismiss it at this point because we come to Saudi a lot. A lot has been made of me being Arab or I’m Muslim or whatever. But growing up, it wasn’t even like that was a dream or it was never something that you ever dreamed of. I couldn’t have dreamed of, that this would happen, so yeah, it would be a pretty big deal, I think.”

A potential Zayn win goes perfectly with a Jey Uso King of the Ring win. Uso would be able to choose to take on Zayn, hypothetically, or World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns.

Speaking to Pakinomist Digital about the possibility of him facing Uso for the title, Zayn looked intrigued given the history he has with The Bloodline.

“I thought about it a little bit, but I really try to focus on one thing at a time. But I think because of the fact that The Bloodline is reunited on ‘Raw’ with a little bit of a different slant now, because Jacob adds a little bit of a different dimension, but it raises that kind of question, the elephant in the room, which is, ‘Where does Sami Uso fit into all of this?’ Because we’re on separate shows, I don’t know if and when that situation, that question, will manifest itself on our TV show,” he said.

“I think one way or another it would be interesting and it would be a really interesting thing. I think it would be very, very interesting actually. But we’ll just have to see where the chips fall. But I think if a scenario like that is going to be, I think it would make for some interesting week-to-week programming where you kind of have to see how this develops.”