Sami Zayn has backstage heat with WWE because of his refusal to work during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Zayn forfeited the Intercontinental Championship earlier this week and a tournament will begin on SmackDown on Friday to crown a new champion.
According to Dave Meltzer, he is facing heat because of his decision to stay at home instead of hitting the ring.
"There is a lot of unhappiness that Zayn exercised the option that they gave everyone regarding not wrestling if you don’t want to right now," Meltzer wrote for Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
He also notes that nobody can actually say it out loud, which, really, makes sense when one thinks about it.
Zayn, naturally, taken to Twitter to voice his displeasure at WWE’s decision to strip his title, insisting that the new champion, whoever they may be, ought to be 'ashamed' of himself.
That, of course, could well be him working his gimmick.
He was a smarmy heel when he pinned Braun Strowman, with the help of Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, to win his first championship on the main roster.
Zayn isn’t the only Superstar to duck out of tapings, with Roman Reigns being off television since WrestleMania due to his underlying conditions, having previously been diagnosed with Leukemia.
He was even edited out of a video package recapping Seth Rollins' WWE Championship win over his former Shield brother and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31.
It remains to be seen if Zayn will lose his spot because of his decision not to wrestle, but one has to imagine that it will not have been easy for him to stay at home.
He is, after all, in the middle of his first run with a title on the main roster and his stable with Cesaro and Nakamura – known as The Artists’ Collective – was beginning to gain some real momentum.