What Does This Imply For Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn?

WWE is bringing again Evening of Champions. Studies circulated concerning the retired pay-per-view title being resurrected for a future premium reside occasion earlier this week, and the information was made official by WWE this previous Thursday. The corporate introduced that WWE Evening of Champions would emanate from Saudi Arabia on Could twenty seventh, changing the beforehand scheduled WWE King and Queen of the Ring. There is no such thing as a phrase on if this alteration is solely altering the present’s title or if it’ll scrap the King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring tournaments from the occasion totally.

Just like the royal match, WWE Evening of Champions is a gimmick present in and of itself: all championships are defended. The pay-per-view ran in that format from 2008 till 2015 and was rebranded as WWE Conflict of Champions upon the model break up in 2016, because the present was now unique to the Monday Evening Uncooked roster and wouldn’t have any WWE SmackDown prizes defended on it.

With that logic in thoughts, bringing again “Evening” somewhat than “Conflict” signifies that WWE plans to have all of its essential roster championships defended contained in the Jeddah Tremendous Dome. Barring any title modifications earlier than then, which means Undisputed WWE Common Champion Roman Reigns, Uncooked Ladies’s Champion Bianca Belair, SmackDown Ladies’s Champion Rhea Ripley, WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther, WWE United States Champion Austin Idea, WWE Ladies’s Tag Crew Champions Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan, and Undisputed WWE Tag Crew Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn would all be competing.

If previous rules persist, which may not be attainable. Within the eight occasions that WWE has ventured to Saudi Arabia for a premium reside occasion, Sami Zayn has by no means traveled. That is because of to Zayn being of Syrian descent, which is a rustic that Saudi Arabia has strained relations with. Traces are blurred on whether or not Zayn is outright banned from competing on the Saudi Arabia exhibits, if WWE doesn’t e book him to keep away from potential points, or if Zayn himself is declining to take part. The present Undisputed Tag Crew Champion has mentioned up to now that he’s not sure of any rules put in place and doesn’t have curiosity in figuring them out.

“I do not know. I do not know the specifics on this,” Zayn mentioned in September 2020. “To this present day I did not actually ask as a result of I wasn’t actually eager on going anyway. I simply wasn’t invited to go and I by no means actually dug into it an excessive amount of as a result of I wasn’t eager on going, to start with.”

Up to now, WWE has discovered methods to put in writing Zayn out of storylines forward of the Saudi exhibits. That mentioned, that is the primary time that his presence is required, if the identical WWE Evening of Champions guidelines are in impact and Zayn continues to be a titleholder come Could.

There are 4 attainable outcomes to this example. The likeliest is that the “all titles are on the road” stipulation is not going to be enforced and the Undisputed WWE Tag Crew Champions is not going to be defended. The choice to having Zayn off the present can be that Zayn and Owens lose their gold in some unspecified time in the future earlier than WWE Evening of Champions. The choices for getting the present tag champions on the present can be to both have Owens defend in a 1-on-2 handicap match or dangerous blood is put to the facet and Zayn is in a position and prepared to wrestle on the present.

Even with a handicap protection on the desk, it is likely one of the extra unlikelier choices. Owens has solely wrestled at one Saudi Arabia present, that being the very first one, WWE Best Royal Rumble in 2018. He was scheduled to wrestle Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship at WWE Tremendous ShowDown in 2019, however declined to take part in assist of Zayn.

Keep tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on Sami Zayn’s WWE Evening of Champions standing.