{"id":164875,"date":"2026-07-24T22:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=164875"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:03:38","slug":"sami-zayn-summerslam-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/07\/24\/sami-zayn-summerslam-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Sami Zayn Granted #1 Contender’s Match at WWE SummerSlam 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a few short weeks ago, Sami Zayn was on top of the WWE SmackDown world as Undisputed WWE Champion, and until recently, he was off the WWE SummerSlam 2026 card<\/a>. On this week’s July 24, 2026 SmackDown, Zayn would\u00a0finally <\/em>get good news. Here are the details on the Sami Zayn SummerSlam match in Minneapolis, Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sami Zayn SummerSlam Match Set on SmackDown<\/h2>\n
\"WWE
A WWE SmackDown graphic of Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zayn went on an absolute tirade, talking about how everyone was against him, from WWE wanting CM Punk and Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship, effectively setting him up for failure on WWE Raw in Chicago. Sami also talked about how it’s also Nick Aldis’ fault<\/a>\u00a0for making the decisions that he did, effectively sacrificing Zayn’s run as Undisputed WWE Champion.<\/p>\n

\"WWE
WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event in MSG graphic: CM Punk & Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther and Sami Zayn. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A livid Zayn would scream at SmackDown General Manager Adam Pearce, demanding he make it a Triple Threat Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship; he wants his due rematch against CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. Pearce would make a counter-offer: Zayn needs to earn it once more. Fortunately for him, there is a Fatal-Four Way Match for tonight’s SmackDown.<\/p>\n

CM Punk mentioned a wave of huge WWE SmackDown stars he wanted to face: United States Champion Trick Williams, Royce Keys, Finn Balor, and Damian Priest, and they all faced off tonight.<\/p>\n

\"WWE
An official WWE graphic for SummerSlam 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was very much chaotic tonight, as apart from the four men in the ring, The Usos, Solo Sikoa, LA Knight, and Jacob Fatu would cause a massive fuss outside the ring, as they laid into each other. Fatu would prove to be a difference-maker, as he would cost Royce Keys the match. Keys had Priest dead to rights, only for him to get pulled by Jacob and get taken out. Finn Balor would see the opportunity and plant a Coup de Grace in the chest of his former Judgment Day brother to earn his ticket to SummerSlam.<\/p>\n

What a match this will be: Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor at SummerSlam 2026; the one who walks away gets a guaranteed shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a few short weeks ago, Sami Zayn was on top of the WWE SmackDown world as Undisputed WWE Champion, and until recently, he was off the WWE SummerSlam 2026 card. On this week’s July 24, 2026 SmackDown, Zayn would\u00a0finally get good news. Here are the details on the Sami Zayn SummerSlam match in Minneapolis, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":163946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,12,2192,26,3],"tags":[111,106,9723],"class_list":["post-164875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-finn-balor","tag-sami-zayn","tag-summerslam-2026"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164875"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164895,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164875\/revisions\/164895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}