WWE SmackDown: The disrespect to Sami Zayn must stop

Sami Zayn is the Intercontinental Champion on WWE SmackDown, yet he continues to be disrespected. The Great Liberator deserves better.

The fraudulent Intercontinental Championship Tournament on WWE SmackDown still leaves a bitter taste, doesn’t it? Taking the title off Sami Zayn and putting it up for grabs? What an absolute travesty of justice.

The Great Liberator was, thus, always the Intercontinental Champion. AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy? Legends. But frauds all the same.

So at Clash of Champions, Zayn, a man armed with handcuffs and his own powerful intellect, did the job himself. He proved what WWE would not recognize. That he, not Hardy or Styles, was the real Intercontinental Champion.

Yet for his efforts, for his triumph, he was not recognized nor valued highly. For defeating two legends of the business in one of the greatest ladder matches we have seen, Zayn did not receive a boost in draft stock.

And when did WWE SmackDown draft Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn?

He was a fourth-round pick.

Yes, the man holding the same championship coveted by such dignitaries as Mr. Perfect, Bret Hart, and a humble soul named “Mike” was relegated to the fourth round of the draft. That night, Zayn had to wait as Matt Riddle and Lars Sullivan were chosen before him. How embarrassing. Even King Corbin and Elias, who could never lace Zayn’s boots in an IC Title match, were taken earlier.

Now the WWE SmackDown roster will fear the wrath of the Great Liberator, whose noble grace carefully veils the rising fury within. It is the fury that led Zayn to reclaim the Intercontinental Title in one of WWE’s most grueling matches of 2020, and it is the fury that will lead Zayn to liberate the SmackDown roster from the incompetent machine above them.

OK, but really, Zayn will cut a bunch of awesome promos, get his usual social media interactions, and WWE still won’t apologize to the man they wronged. We know the drill, as unfortunate and predictable as it is.

Yet we, the intellectuals whose eyes were first opened by The Planet’s Champion, know better. We know Sami Zayn is no fourth-round pick or generic afterthought on Friday nights. Therefore, we will lead the charge in praising one of the greats of his time, a revolutionary genius. Together, we will stop the disrespect to Zayn and demand that this liberator receive the recognition – nay, the adulation – he has earned.