Sami Zayn has been going through a slow-burn character shift in WWE since dropping the Undisputed WWE Championship to CM Punk, but the pacing of the storyline reportedly hasn’t sat well with everyone behind the scenes.
According to a rumor from the Wrestletales Insider Report, some of the Friday Night SmackDown writing staff wanted the heel turn to happen right away on July 6, when Zayn lost the title to Punk on the Monday Night RAW from Chicago.
The report claims Triple H prefers to build character changes slowly in order to give them more impact:
“I’ve heard that some of the writers for Smackdown dissatisfied. The brand has no main event heel besides Gunther and Randy. The writers believe Sami should’ve turned heel at Chicago right after he lost it. Triple H wants heel turns to be meaningful and likes to take it slow – which has been a mixed bag.”
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2:00 AM · Aug 22, 2026Zayn captured his first world championship in WWE on June 27 at Night of Champions, winning a Triple Threat Match over Cody Rhodes and Gunther. Just nine days later, he dropped the belt to Punk in Chicago after Gunther attacked Rhodes and took out the originally announced challenger.
From there, Zayn’s frustration has taken on a bigger role in the storyline. At SummerSlam on August 2, he came up short in a Fatal 4-Way Match won by Kevin Owens, who returned after 17 months on the shelf and earned himself a world title shot.
The strongest signal yet came on the August 21 SmackDown. Zayn attempted to come to Owens’ aid against Punk, but after Owens refused to use the championship belt as a weapon, Zayn turned on him, attacking Owens with the title before laying out Punk as well.
So while the shift has taken longer than some on the creative team reportedly would have liked, WWE appears to have brought Sami Zayn closer to a definitive heel turn than at any point since this storyline began.