Here’s what matters today in wrestling 👇
Image Credit: WWE
It’s been quite the journey for Sami Zayn. Back when WWE started running events in Saudi Arabia, Sami couldn’t even come on the trips because of his Syrian heritage. Once things smoothed over diplomatically between Syria & the Saudis, Sami began appearing in the country and became one of the most popular wrestlers there. It became apparent that if Sami ever was to win a world championship, Saudi Arabia would be one of the best places for it to happen.
Of course, that wasn’t a sure thing either. Many thought that Sami had missed his best chance to win a world championship. He was never more over with the general public than during his time with the Bloodline, and people thought that Sami could be the man to dethrone Roman Reigns after leaving the group. Once that didn’t happen, fans largely gave up on the idea. In recent months fans even started turning against Sami, growing tired of his underdog character getting in the way of fresher & younger Superstars. They teased Sami going bad for too long, people thought. Wrestlers like Randy Orton, Karrion Kross and even Cody Rhodes suggested that Sami needed to be more aggressive. Sami didn’t act on it for months, but finally he did and now he’s the Undisputed WWE Champion.
Online reaction to Sami’s win is mixed, as one would expect given the Sami Zayn discourse lately. Many are happy for him, while others wish it would have happened a long time ago and are already worrying about him losing the championship soon. Then you have the bitter old wrestlers like Bob Holly & Val Venis whining because Sami’s a lot smaller than they had to get in order to even get noticed back in the Attitude Era. I wish I could act surprised that these old, outdated ideas are still around, but I hear just enough of the national news to know that old, outdated ideas are the order of the day here in 2026. I’m part of the crowd that’s happy for Sami and not really worried about how long his title reign will be. It’s always crazy to me when someone I saw wrestle at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in the 2000s gets to the top of the biggest company in the world, even if it’s happened multiple times now.
WRESTLING HEADLINES 👊🏽
•WWE Announces NXT Heatwave & AAA Event Opposite AEW All In
Image Credit: WWE
August 30 is going to be a busy afternoon for wrestling fans. AEW All In will air on PPV live from London, while WWE will run two events in Texas to air opposite the Wembley Stadium extravaganza. AAA will have an event streaming on YouTube starting at 12:00 PM Eastern, then NXT’s Heatwave will air on the CW starting at 3:00 PM. I don’t think anyone can be surprised by this point, the question is whether the exercise will have the results WWE is hoping for. Wrestling fans have become more & more tribalistic over the years and on average are less likely to switch from channel to channel like we did in the old days. WWE diehards will tell you that AEW isn’t worth their time. AEW diehards will tell you that WWE is run by fascists and anyone that watches their shows is fascist. It’s tough out here for those of us trying to watch all the shows! I don’t think NXT/AAA will take away from AEW, and I’m annoyed that I work on Sundays and probably won’t have time to watch all of this stuff.
Image Credit: TNA
TNA’s creative department seems to be taking shape after the departure of Tommy Dreamer. Hunter Johnston is taking a larger role in things, and Brian James was backstage at Slammiversary. Eric Thompkins, who’s been involved with TNA since 2009 in various positions, is also having a bigger voice in things. Backstage Internet sources seem high on where things are going for TNA. To me, it’s always tough to speculate on creative team decisions & people involved because I really don’t know who’s bringing the good ideas and who’s bringing the bad. I mean, we can all guess, but we don’t know for sure. Just because Brian James is blamed by many for a bad era of SmackDown doesn’t mean he was the one making it that way. Johnston was involved in good & bad eras of Ring of Honor. It’s easier to credit him for both since he wasn’t part of a gigantic creative team, but it’s not like he had a budget to speak of either. Hopefully things work out well for them and TNA can present something we want to watch on Thursday nights.
MORE MUST-READ LINKS FROM 411MANIA
→Hall's WWE Raw Review 6.29.26
→Is Triple H Best for Business? Examining Possible Replacements for WWE's Head of Creative
→411's WWE's Greatest Moments Report: Dusty Rhodes
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