Sami Zayn Reflects on Becoming a Two-Time WWE Champion, Whether He Thought His Window Had Closed

WWE Undisputed Champion Sami Zayn recently sat down with Insight with Chris Van Vliet to reflect on becoming a two-time world champion, his career, and more. Sami Zayn is currently in his second run as WWE Undisputed Champion. He won the title from CM Punk on SmackDown last month. Below are some highlights:

Sami Zayn on Becoming a Two-Time WWE Champion

“It’s cool. Yeah, here’s the thing that’s funny about it because even at the start of this year, which was nine months ago, ten months ago now, whatever, I was wrestling Drew, and I didn’t win. I had kind of just battled with it and went, you know what, maybe the ship sailed. I was real close a couple of years ago with all the Bloodline stuff and all that, and even in the fallout of that. Then I was close, but after losing that match, I was like, well, you can’t tell this story again. Maybe it’ll happen in some different way, and it did happen in a bit of a different way. But the Cinderella story, underdog who finally wins the big one- we burnt that card; that card was done after losing to Drew because you can only tell that story so many times.

“You can get them on board once, twice, three times, and it wasn’t the right time. It wasn’t. I didn’t have the momentum that I had a year or two prior to that. But I had to kind of struggle to accept that maybe I just missed the window, slipped through the cracks, and it just won’t happen. I’ve said this before in other interviews, or to friends, or my wife, or whatever. I’ve had a tremendous career, and winning the world title at that point is just the cherry on top. It would be nice to have, but it’s not like if I never win it, it’s like I never [got it]. You know what I mean? You don’t live and die by these things. You kind of just got to look at the big picture.”

On Whether He Ever Thought His Window To Become Champion Had Closed

“I don’t think anything changed, and that’s actually the point. It’s that I kept doing what I do, which is making sure that everything I’m involved in is as good as it could possibly be. Eventually, a lot has to happen, even when you’re doing good work, and you’re great and all this stuff, to win the WWE Championship. It is like there is no such thing as a fluke win. I know when I won it the first time, and it was nine days, in character you could say I was a fluke. There’s no such thing as a fluke WWE title win. To even be in the periphery of it is insane. To even be in the mix, to even be in the discussion, to even have title matches, even if you’re losing them, is extremely one in a billion already to be put in that position. So to win it, there’s an immeasurable number of variables that are required to be in that position. So there’s no such thing as a fluke WWE title win.

“So I just think kind of slow and steady wins the race. You keep doing good work, and then it’s timing, and that’s the thing that a lot of people don’t account for. There are so many variables that are out of your control. Of course, you control what you can control, but there’s so many variables that are just not yours to play with, and I think timing ended up being the deciding factor, obviously on the day of or whatever, right place, right time, right variables going into it, all that, but also like you have to work really, really hard and have this crazy level of consistency to constantly be even in the mix.”

On Which Title Win Means More To Him

“Well, I’d say the first win. That’s more special because the first is the first, right? But I’m really enjoying what I’m doing right now, and I know it’s only been maybe a month or I don’t even know how long it’s been, but I like this trajectory I’m on currently, and having some fun to tell some stories and have these challenges all waiting in the wings and get to do this like kind of character work. That’s been really rewarding. That’s really fun.”

On Whether He Dreamed About This as a Kid

“Not really. You know, it’s weird. I don’t even know how to answer this. I find it very hard to speak about myself in any sort of absolutes and say I’m this type of person. I think a lot of stuff is just like circumstance, but I’ll try to generalize and paint myself in a bit of a broader stroke here. I used to say I have ideas; I don’t have plans. I know I’d like to get there, so I kind of generally work towards something, and then it ends up being there. Then you end up getting there, but I don’t map it out. God, I don’t know how to answer that about the WWE Champion thing.”

Sami Zayn has a huge matchup ahead. He renews his rivalry with Roman Reigns at WWE Crown Jewel 2026. The two champions will face each other for the annual WWE Crown Jewel Championship.

WWE Crown Jewel 2026 takes place on Saturday, November 7. The event will be held at the Riyadh Season Stadium at King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It will air live on the ESPN App in the U.S. and on Netflix internationally.