Sami Zayn captures the WWE Championship at Night of Champions

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it happened. How did it happen? Let’s rewind to before the match started. Sami Zayn, a proud Muslim, came out to the ring first in the traditional Saudi dress, to a massive ovation from the crowd. From the beginning, the feeling was there of what if this actually happens?

HE DID IT! HE ACTUALLY DID IT! SAMI ZAYN IS THE WWE CHAMPION! The last real good guy, a man who has been struggling like hell to find himself for what feels like forever, who has come so close to achieving the lifelong dream of winning the WWE championship only to have his heart broken time and time again, pinned Cody Rhodes in the main event of Night of Champions in front of thousands of adoring fans in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He took the title out into the crowd with him, the man swept up in a sea of people sharing in the ecstasy of the moment. At 41-years-old, after over 13 years working for the company, Zayn has reached the summit. I cannot believe this is real. They had what I would consider an ideal triple threat match too. Whoever laid it out deserves a ton of credit, because there were multiple instances where I would have bought a finish from all three of the guys in the match. It sure looked like GUNTHER was about to do it when he had Rhodes in the sleeper only for Zayn to rush in and hold Cody’s arm up himself. It sure looked like Rhodes would retain when he was about to hit a second Cross Rhodes. But it was Zayn who countered, who rolled up arguably the top babyface of the past four years, who finally achieved the dream and won it all. No one involved in the match is worse off for this. It may even be the most interesting outcome possible for GUNTHER but especially for the guy who had been calling himself QB1. What does he call himself now? What’s next for him? All eyes turn to the King of the Ring, and WWE already has analysts talking about Zayn being the easier title to go after. Perhaps that had something to do with making a switch here? Either way, holy shit. It’s real. He did it. Sami Zayn is WWE champion. Kevin Owens is smiling somewhere, just like the rest of us. A new King WWE knew the smartest play for Night of Champions was to put the two tournament finals on ESPN for the free first hour, seeing as they would be crowning two new top contenders. First, Oba Femi and Jey Uso squared up and I was surprised they had a competitive match. I didn’t expect a squash or anything but I also didn’t see Jey getting as much offense on Femi as he did. After all, this man was booked to be a world beater who was running through Brock Lesnar F-5’s. It took SEVEN to finally keep him down. The idea that he is out there selling for Jey Uso hits weird after that. Then again, a victory only means as much as it does when there’s an actual hill to climb, a challenge to overcome. In the end, Femi was given the emphatic victory. They didn’t go overboard with the celebration either, which I appreciated. He doesn’t need all the pomp and circumstance. Just the crown and a few words on the microphone to make clear he is the ruler, the bringer of war, a runaway freight train from hell going straight up the… you know the rest. We’re now playing the game of “who will Oba choose to challenge at SummerSlam” and I actually think they’re right to lean into that. I love the idea of his working Roman Reigns, for certain, but I’m not so sure they shouldn’t hold off on that for a while. I wouldn’t hate jumping him over to SmackDown and taking the WWE championship off Sami Zayn, which could very well be the reason they were okay with making the switch here. It’s time for QB1’s refresh, right? Why not have a big bad like Oba send him into crisis? A new Queen I was surprised to see Danhausen coming out on the stage just before the Queen of the Ring Tournament Final was to take place. Then my colleague here at Cageside, Kyle Decker, made the great point in the office that it makes a ton of sense to have the most sports adjacent star on the roster appear during the ESPN portion of the broadcast. Liv Morgan was none too pleased to see him, as she cut him off and demanded human monies for his interfering with Judgment Day business. Naturally, he responded by cursing her. That might as well have been a spoiler. They did their best to create some doubt — including a spot where Morgan pushed Sky off the top rope and she sold like she hurt her knee. It was ultimately just an obstacle to overcome, and Sky did just that, though it felt a bit rushed from Morgan being in control to Sky making her comeback and scoring the victory. After, Sky didn’t bother cutting a promo at all. She simply told Liv she’ll see her at SummerSlam, calling her shot for the world championship match, leaving Rhea Ripley free to worry about her own business on SmackDown. It’s the right booking choice for what they’ve been doing, I just don’t find it all that compelling. On the plus side, they should have no issues putting together a much better match for Minneapolis. Find out who you are A steel cage match is supposed to keep the two participants locked inside to ensure they finally settle their differences in a no holds barred setting. That’s why I really appreciated Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker grabbing all the gimmicks they wanted to use — chairs, tables, kendo sticks, what have you — and bringing them into the ring with them. That kind of simple logic is missing from pro wrestling all too often. It’s worth praising when they bother with it. The ensuing match was a fun war of attrition, one that showed how unhinged Breakker can be. At one point, he put Rollins between a chair and screamed at him “YOU’RE GONNA DIE” before grabbing a separate chair and lining up what looked like a damn guillotine style killing blow. Seth moved, of course, but I like going the extra mile in a match designed for it. They pushed it to the limit when they both went to the top of the cage to fight it out, and coming down by way of a superplex from Seth to Bron through a table set up in the ring below them. Breakker came up bleeding near the eye somehow. Rollins kept telling him to find out who he is, to finish the fight. That led to the most incredible near fall, when Breakker missed a Spear and sent himself HARD through a table, then took a Pedigree and a Stomp and still managed to kick out before three. The finish may have been the best part — when they got back up, Bron called Seth off and tried to fire himself up enough to get back in. He just didn’t have anything left in the tank, and Rollins was in position to hit a Super Stomp. That’s what finally did the trick. Both men were fantastic here. Breakker took the loss but it’s couldn’t be any more obvious that he’s a future WrestleMania main event level guy. YACHT DROP At first, it sure looked like Lil Yachty traveled all the way to Saudi Arabia to do an entrance with Trick Williams and get kicked out of the match just two minutes into it when Ricky Saints did his best Eddie Guerrero impression. It was the most interesting thing about the United States championship match. Saints was doing his best to really introduce himself to a wider audience, and to be fair the audience responded to him like a star, but I was underwhelmed by the entirety of the match they put together. Having said that, the result made the most sense to me — Trick going over clean. After, Yachty made his way back out, of course, and the babyfaces added insult to injury when they had the rapper hit the People’s Elbow on the way out. They’re calling it the Yacht Drop. There isn’t much to say about this one. I love me some Trick Willy but his matches can be lacking, and that was the case here. A mess Jade Cargill vs. Tiffany Stratton got off on a tough start when the former appeared to hit a legitimately hard knee to the latter’s grill on a spot on the outside. The work remained pretty sloppy from there. They overbooked the hell out of it, perhaps understanding the potential need to do so, with Chelsea Green showing up from under the ring to help deal with Michin and B-Fab, who had interfered on Cargill’s behalf. That only worked for so long and saw the United States championship left in the ring for Jade to grab to use as a weapon. Except none other than Charlotte Flair appeared as if from nowhere to take the title and use it against Cargill first. Stratton took the gimme, hit the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, and retained the title right after. I still see Green as the wrestler I’m most interested in coming out of this, as has been the case for most of these segments in recent memory, but it would appear we are moving right into Cargill vs. Flair. I enjoyed the show. Grade: B- Your turn.

The main event of today’s (June 27) Night of Champions PLE in was a triple threat match with Cody Rhodes defending the WWE championship against GUNTHER and Sami Zayn. WWE talked up this match as Sami’s tenth and possibly last shot at winning a world title in the company. Cody and GUNTHER both dismissed him as a serious threat to win the title in the buildup to this match, and they paid the price for underestimating him, especially in front of his people in Saudi Arabia. Late in the bout, GUNTHER was on the verge of winning the match after powerbombing Rhodes through a table and putting him to sleep. However, Zayn was there to catch Cody’s arm on the drop when the referee checked it. Sami Zayn SAVES the match and Cody Rhodes in the process 🫢 pic.twitter.com/zdeGM9SpEn — WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2026 Rhodes eventually recovered and was on his way to victory with this double Cross Rhodes on his opponents, but Zayn was one step quicker on Cody’s follow-up attempt, and pulled off the shocking miracle pin on WWE’s Golden Boy. SAMI ZAYN IS UNDISPUTED WWE CHAMPION!!!!! A MIRACLE IN SAUDI ARABIA!!! pic.twitter.com/rtmYqWSgfw — WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2026 WHAT A MOMENT FOR SAMI ZAYN!!! 🥹 pic.twitter.com/NPgf2Anv8x — WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2026 Now that Sami Zayn finally has his surprise world title win, do you think he’ll actually hold on to the top prize in WWE until SummerSlam? Let me know your reaction to Zayn’s unbelievable world title win in the comments below, Cagesiders. Catch up on all the results from Night of Champions in our live blog right here.

After more than a decade in the company, Sami Zayn captured the Undisputed WWE Championship by pinning Cody Rhodes at Night of Champions.