Sami Zayn vs. GUNTHER at WrestleMania 40
Sami Zayn ended the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in WWE history as he defeated GUNTHER. The heated match was built around Sami Zayn’s underdog status as an outmatched challenger competing against an unmatchable champion.
Despite many fans clamoring for Sami Zayn to get his big moment at WrestleMania, Zayn entered the WWE Intercontinental Championship match as a slight +150 underdog.
GUNTHER has been historically unstoppable as WWE Intercontinental champion, a title he has held longer than anybody in history while stacking one impressive win on another. Easily the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time, GUNTHER’s days with the secondary championship are numbered—not only because of the law of averages—but also because he is destined for a world championship.
Much like WrestleMania 39, when Zayn and Owens dethroned historic tag team champions The Usos, WWE leaned into Sami Zayn’s eternal moniker as the underdog from the underground. Zayn scratched fought and clawed his way to a Gauntlet Match win on the March 11 broadcast of WWE Raw. Zayn’s story then shifted to a frenemy relationship with Chad Gable, who motivated and trained Gable for GUNTHER despite desperately wanting the opportunity for himself. This dynamic led to speculation that Gable may turn on Zayn out of jealousy.
The Chad Gable subplot also enhanced the Zayn-GUNTHER matchup with more complete storytelling that created doubt as to whether Zayn was actually going to pull off the upset. The uncertainty of who would walk away with the win is foreign to most GUNTHER IC Title matches, where GUNTHER is typically an overwhelming favorite. As a result, the uncertainty made for a heated match with fans biting on several nearfalls from both Superstars. As for Chad Gable? He wished Sami good luck during a touching moment before the match (as did Zayn’s wife, young son and Kevin Owens) and Gable did not get involved at all.
Sami conquered GUNTHER all by himself.
WWE is going to be spending a lot of time in Sami Zayn country over the next month. The April 15 broadcast of WWE Raw will air from Zayn’s home country of Montreal, where he suffered a controversial loss to Roman Reigns for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship last year. Not only will WWE Raw air from Montreal a week from Monday, WWE’s next international Premium Live Event, Backlash, will emanate from France. Both settings will be celebratory environments for the new king of the Intercontinental Championship division.
In an era of long-term storytelling and slow-burning heel turns, Zayn’s next feud could be against Chad Gable.
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