Notebook: Sami Zayn as WWE champ? Plus, AEW ‘Forbidden Door’ review

Sami Zayn is a good hand, a versatile performer who can rally WWE fans as a babyface and rile them up as a heel.

He’s believable as a singles wrestler, and solid in tag teams.

But, WWE champ?

Zayn, 41, won his first world title in the main event at WWE’s “Night of Champions” on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, winning a three-way match with Cody Rhodes and Gunther with a roll-up pinfall on Rhodes, the defending champ.

Zayn seems to be a transitional champ, destined to lose the belt at the upcoming “SummerSlam” to Oba Femi, who earned a title shot with his win in the “King of the Ring” final earlier on Saturday’s card.

There are going to be comparisons of Zayn and the recent brief title run of Darby Allin as the AEW champ, and I think that’s fair.

Neither are guys who fit the profile of wrestling world champ.

Both are the kinds of guys who have the neckbeards ready to chant, You deserve it.

Reality check: no one in wrestling deserves anything.

A key difference between the two: Zayn isn’t a crash-test dummy.

Quick ‘Forbidden Door’ review

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I liked the show a lot more than I thought I would – I’d been on the fence about even watching.

Great women’s matches – a win for AEW world champ Thekla over The Starlight Kid, a win for Mercedes Mone against the upset-minded Maya World, in a star-making performance from World.

Thekla is the best women’s wrestler in the world right now; now we get Thekla-Mone at Wembley in August.

I want to put over Will Ospreay-Swerve Strickland as an instant classic, but the last three minutes took it down several notches.

I continue to not be a fan of the booking of Ospreay as a feckless simp only able to navigate his way to the main event at the Wembley show because of the help of Jon Moxley and The Death Riders.

Ospreay, ostensibly, is being booked as the babyface hero in what will be a homecoming for him in his native London; so, explain to me the logic behind having a heel stable being responsible for getting him there?

I know that the booking for Moxley and TDR has been 50/50 since the beginning of the angle with Ospreay, but literally a couple of hours before the main event, Moxley defended his Continental title against Bandido, a clear babyface, and in the course of the defense, Moxley attempted, and was thisclose to being successful, in unmasking Bandido.

It’s not a face move to try to unmask a luchador, to say the least.

That whole sequence had me yelling at the TV for somebody to come out and rattle Moxley’s cage.

That’s the guy leading the effort to get the company’s top babyface ready for the main event at AEW’s biggest show of the year?

Having Moxley and his Death Riders at ringside to urge Ospreay on rendered the guy who is seet to headline Wembley into a secondary role in what should be his story.

Terrible booking there.

News and notes

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• We’re due another update from WrestleTix on sales for the Roanoke AEW “Collision” show scheduled for Saturday, July 11. At last check, just 1,301 tickets distributed from a 2,381-fan setup (54.6 percent). Note: the Berglund Center has a capacity for basketball and ice hockey at 8,600, so, even if AEW gets to close to sellout at its setup, that’s still barely a quarter of what they could get in the building.
• WWE is set to return to The Scope in Norfolk on Monday, Aug. 10, for a live broadcast of “Raw.” WrestleTix has advance sales at 5,300 against a 7,157-fan setup (74.1 percent). Of note: WWE had 8,700 on hand for its last visit to The Scope, on 12, 2025. The Scope can hold 12,600 for basketball and end-stage concerts.