Un nouveau jour, une nouvelle re, un nouveau champion (translation from French to English: A new day, a new era, a new champion). He's been a former WWE NXT, four-time Intercontinental, World Tag, and Tag Team Champion, but for the first time in his WWE career, Sami Zayn is now the new Men's United States Champion. After connectingtwo Helluva Kicks on the former champion Solo Sikoa, Zayn celebrated this once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment with a lively uproar of animated fans in Lyon, France yesterday on "WWE SmackDown." But it seems Zayn's long-time frenemy Kevin Owens had to chime in on his first-time moment.
A former three-time United States Champion himself, "The Prizefigther" wrote a sincere yet cheeky message about his former tag team partner's historic win on X [formerly known as Twitter]: "One of the best indeed...Top 1, in my opinion. I still hate him though. Or maybe not. I don't know, it's hard to remember. Depends on the day, I guess. We'll see what happens. One thing I do know for sure is that he's the best."
It's true what "SmackDown" commentator Joe Tessitore said during Zayn's match this past Friday, and it's that Zayn has been hovering around top title contention for some time now, since August of 2024, to be exact. After losing his Intercontinental Championship to Bron Breakker at last year's SummerSlam, the "Underdog from the Underground" has made it his mission that every title he wins from here on out will put him much closer to achieving his ultimate goal of becoming either the World Heavyweight or Undisputed Champion for the first time in his WWE tenure. But for now, he's got a lot of celebrating to do.
