WWE recently announced that Night of Champions will make its return on May 27th, and this could be a major problem for both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
The Premium Live Event will be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as part of the company's deal with the Middle Eastern country. The name of the event was changed from WWE King and Queen of the Ring. The theme of Night of Champions is that every title on the main roster has to be defended, including the tag titles.
This is an issue for the reigning Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, as the duo don't compete in Saudi Arabia. The former Honorary Uce is not allowed in the country due to its strained relations with Syria, as he's of Syrian descent. KO also doesn't go to Saudi for WWE events in order to support his best friend.
The May 27th Premium Live Event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will now be WWE Night of Champions! pic.twitter.com/Cxj40LzIza
— WWE (@WWE) April 13, 2023
Night of Champions is set to take place next month. Since 2007, every tag team championship has been defended on the show. This means that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens could either drop the tag titles back to The Usos or to another team at Backlash in Puerto Rico, or the titles won't be on the line at the event, which would be a first.
Sami Zayn reveals why he doesn't compete in Saudi Arabia
During an appearance on the Blindboy Podcast in 2020, the former Intercontinental Champion explained why he doesn't perform in Saudi Arabia. He mentioned that he doesn't have the desire to compete in the country anyway.
"WWE did a thing, a partnership sort of or signed some sort of deal to put on these shows in Saudi Arabia for I don’t know, what, 10 years or something like that. And I just wasn’t invited to go and I never really dug into it too much because I wasn’t keen on going to begin with," he said.
The WWE Universe would be disappointed if Sami Zayn and KO lose the tag titles very soon. It'll be interesting to see what solution WWE comes up with for this problem.On #WWERaw, Solo Sikoa defeated Kevin Owens in the main event. Post-match, The Bloodline beat down KO, but Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle made the save!#WWE pic.twitter.com/DIG5hlo512
— Sportskeeda Wrestling (@SKWrestling_) April 11, 2023