Sami Zayn has finally reached the top of WWE after years of coming close. However, the two-time WWE Champion recently admitted that he thought his chance to win the company’s biggest title had passed earlier this year.

Zayn shocked fans when he defeated Cody Rhodes to win the WWE Championship at Night of Champions in June. He did it again on the September 11 episode of SmackDown after beating CM Punk to become champion for the second time.

But before those big wins, Sami Zayn struggled with the thought that he might never become world champion.

How the loss to Drew McIntyre made Sami Zayn question his WWE Championship future

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Zayn explained how losing to Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble earlier this year made him question whether he would ever reach the top.

Zayn’s journey toward the WWE title has included several losses. One of the biggest came at Elimination Chamber 2023. There, he challenged Roman Reigns in front of his hometown crowd in Montreal. Fans strongly supported Zayn, but he failed to defeat the OTC.

During the conversation, Zayn admitted he could have won that match and that there was a good reason to believe the title could change hands. However, WWE wanted Cody Rhodes to win the championship later.

Zayn explained that Rhodes had a lot of momentum at the time. Now, looking back, he believes his own championship wins became even more rewarding because of how things turned out.

Things became harder after Zayn lost to McIntyre at Royal Rumble this year. He had another chance to win the WWE Championship but could not get past the Scottish Warrior.

“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,” Zayn said (H/T: Chris Van Vliet).

After coming close to winning the championship several times, the WWE Champion started to wonder whether his opportunity had passed.

“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,” he said.

Despite those doubts, his victory over Rhodes and then Punk proved that his first title win wasn’t a one-time fluke.

However, Zayn admitted he would have been happy with his career even if he never won a world title.

“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,” he said.

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