Unsurprisingly, Sami Zayn did not advance to the finals of the KOTR tournament in 2021 at Crown Jewel. Zayn has never wrestled at any of WWE's events in Saudi Arabia since the company began hosting shows there in April 2018. The Underdog from the Underground has said in the past that he has no interest in wrestling in this Middle Eastern country, but reports suggest that this isn't the deciding factor as to why he's been absent from Saudi shows. WWE's 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia doesn't include Zayn, but why? On a side note, Aleister Black, now known as Malakai Black in AEW, was also prevented from performing in Saudi Arabia while with WWE. The reason was that some of his tattoos had religious connotations. It's also worth noting that in the WWE Saudi events before Crown Jewel 2019, women wrestlers weren't allowed to be on the card.

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UPDATE: 2023/06/14 16:13 EST BY ANDREW KELLY

Sami Zayn Is Now A Part Of WWE's Saudi Arabia Events

Ever since WWE’s Saudi Arabia shows began, the question of Sami Zayn’s status has always lingered above the heads of many fans. Questions on morality have been brought up in the years in which Zayn hasn’t traveled with WWE to Saudi Arabia, with the whole situation making WWE look unfavorable. With Zayn becoming a very prominent star in 2023, fans were wondering how WWE would handle his status ahead of the PPVs in Saudi Arabia, however, in a turn of events, Zayn ended up going with WWE to Night of Champions 2023 in a move which took quite a few people by surprise given the history.

Sami Zayn's Syrian Ethnicity

Sami Zayn was born and raised in Canada and currently lives in the United States, residing in Orlando, Florida. However, his ethnic background ties back to Syria, with both of his parents being Syrian immigrants. Sami and his parents are also Muslims. In 2019, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Cultaholic) reported that the Saudi government had prohibited WWE from using Zayn at Super ShowDown because of his Syrian ethnicity. A year before that, Ryan Satin reported that WWE pulled Zayn from The Greatest Royal Rumble as a way to "respect the local culture in Saudi Arabia."

Saudi Arabia and Syria are Sunni Muslim-majority countries, but that doesn't mean they see eye-to-eye. Quite the contrary, relations have been strained between the two countries, particularly following the Syrian Civil War. The Saudi government is known to have funded rebels looking to oust an Alawite, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. However, in recent times, both countries have attempted to mend their rocky relationship with rapprochement talks.

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Sami Zayn has grown from a wrestler to a philanthropist while responding to the conflict in his ancestral homeland. Zayn launched the mobile medical clinic Sami For Syria, set up to provide medical treatment to those affected by the war in northwest Syria. Sami has donated thousands of his own dollars to the cause. Not only is Sami of Syrian descent, but this charitable initiative shows that he's somewhat active in the country's affairs. There was no report indicating this to be the reason for Sami's Saudi exclusion, but it's still possible it could play a factor. In 2018, Sami was awarded The Humanitarian Award by the Syrian American Medical Society for his fundraising campaign.

Is Sami Zayn Banned From Saudi Arabia?

While a guest on The Blindboy podcast, when asked if he was banned from going to Saudi Arabia, Zayn responded by saying "I don’t know. I don’t know the specifics on this. To this day I didn’t really ask because I wasn’t really keen on going anyway. But WWE did a thing, a partnership 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..."

Zayn also said, "You know, it became very popular, very easy to say, ‘Well you shouldn’t go to this country because they do these awful things’ and I understand it and I agree and if I was asked to perform in Israel, I wouldn’t, right? But at the same time, I perform in the United States, you know what I mean? And I live in the United States. So there’s that sort of dissonance to get your head around a little bit. So I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about all of that.”

Sami Zayn Is WWE’s Most Over Star, But Still Couldn't Travel To Saudi Arabia For Crown Jewel 2022

It isn’t just Sami Zayn who doesn’t attend WWE’s Saudi Arabia events, as plenty of WWE superstars have refused to compete at the shows. The likes of Daniel Bryan and John Cena stopped going to these shows too, along with a few more up and down the card. Kevin Owens is another notable name who refuses to make the journey, and whilst his lack of attendance could be down to the political issues surrounding the relationship, there is every chance that his close friendship with Sami Zayn helped to influence his decision too.

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Zayn was on a roll ahead of WWE’s Crown Jewel event, but he wasn't there.

Sami Zayn Main Evented Night Of Champions 2023

Sami Zayn is finally a part of WWE’s Saudi Arabia events. In 2023, Zayn walked into Night of Champions in Jeddah as one half of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, and walked out as a victor in the main event of the show. It had been reported in the lead up that Saudi Arabia didn’t have an issue with Zayn coming to the country, and that the decision was more on his side at this stage. This comes at a time when Saudi Arabia and Syria are in talks with one another once again, with the tensions between the two countries at a lower point. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed this as playing a role, stating that Zayn made the decision following diplomatic relations resuming between the two nations.

Seeing Zayn in Saudi Arabia felt like a huge deal, especially since he was able to fully embrace his own religion and culture, speaking Arabic in front of frenzied fans who showed an outpouring of support. Zayn and his friend Kevin Owens (who also traveled to Saudi Arabia for the first time since the very first event held in the Kingdom) teamed up to defeat Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa in a big time main event.