Sami Zayn disagrees with WWE stripping his title

WWE star Sami Zayn has responded to WWE vacating his Intercontinental Championship.

On Tuesday night, WWE Backstage on FS1 broke the news that they would be vacating the Intercontinental Championship. It is believed that this is being done due to Sami Zayn’s inability to get across the U.S./Canada border to fulfill his obligations.

Less than 12 hours after the announcement, Zayn took to Twitter and promptly showed his stance on the decision. He made his feelings very well known, that he never lost the title and he disagreed with the move to vacate the title.

The decision comes with the news that a tournament will be held to declare a new champion. When the WWE on FOX’s Twitter account posted a question asking fans who they thought would be the new champion, Zayn spitefully replied, “Ashamed of themselves.”

Does he have a point though?

It sets an interesting precedent, given that most champions are given a maximum of 30 days in between title defenses. In most cases, it takes an injury or suspension to warrant a company stripping a champion of his title. But in this case, we’ve never seen a global pandemic as the reason for something like this.

Zayn has opted to self-quarantine during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and has not been on TV in some time. A similar decision was made by Roman Reigns, who backed out of his WrestleMania main event with Goldberg just prior to the event. Several others have also taken the same road as well.

Sami Zayn won the championship back on May 8, when he defeated Braun Strowman at the Elimination Chamber event. Since then, as we all know, the coronavirus pandemic has slammed the door on the majority of the sports world.

One way to further this situation would be for Zayn to challenge the new champion, whenever he eventually returns to television. It could be very similar to the CM Punk-John Cena feud a few years back, which saw Cena win a tournament final to become new WWE Champion. Punk returned to TV that night, with his WWE title, setting up a nice program. If they follow that path, it’d be a perfect way to slide him back into the picture when everything is back on track.

But in the meantime, was WWE in the right to vacate the title, knowing his inability to travel was outside of his handling? Time will tell how this situation is handled.