WWE Night Of Champions 2025 Results As Sami Zayn Defeats Karrion Kross

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Blake Oestriecher is a columnist covering WWE, AEW and wrestling

A late addition to the Night of Champions card, Kross vs

Zayn exactly how most WWE fans expected: with Zayn standing tall

Kross was a last-minute replacement for the scrapped Intercontinental Championship match between Dominik Mysterio and AJ Styles, and it presented Kross with the biggest opportunity he’s received on the main roster over the last few years

But with Zayn firmly entrenched as one of WWE’s most beloved babyfaces, Kross ran into a brick wall in at WWE Night of Champions in Riyadh despite dominating most of the match

Karrion Kross At WWE Night of Champions, the creative team finally gave Kross some significant TV time for a change, a result of the positive fan reaction to his scathing post-WrestleMania worked shoot mo

Kross, not known to be one of WWE’s best in-ring workers, dered a solid performance, demonating the majority of the bout and showing that he’s more than deserving of having a consistent role on Monday Night Raw moving forward

Among the key highlights of Zayn’s win over Kross were: MORE FOR YOU Zayn hit Kross with a Blue Thunderbomb for the closest nearfall of the match up to that point

Kross responded with a pair of release German suplexes before Zayn eventually caught him with an exploder suplex into the turnbuckle

Zayn went for the Helluva Kick, but Kross caught him in the Kross Jacket hold

Zayn nearly passed out in the submission before ultimately grabbing the bottom rope

Kross hit Zayn with a series of clotheslines in the corner until Zayn nailed Kross with a Helluva Kick out of nowhere to get the pin and the win

WWE Night of Champions finally allowed Kross to get some screen time beyond a brief backstage segment, but let’s be honest, his match with Zayn was less igniting a push for the former NXT Champion and more giving Zayn a win and the momentum that s

Zayn remains one of WWE’s top stars, and because he’s in the midst of a long-term story arc in which he’s pursuing his first-ever world title, he needed the resounding victory that he got at Night of Champions

It’s certainly possible that WWE Night of Champions was Kross’s last hurrah

Although WWE just released new Kross merchandise amid his rise as a cult favorite of s, his WWE contract reportedly expires soon and there has been little talk of WWE re-signing him

With WWE’s recent slew of cost-cutting releases, WWE could be squeezing the last bit of juice out of Kross as he potentially exits the company for a second time

That would explain his loss to Zayn, who is much higher on WWE’s pecking order and has recently hinted time and time again that he will eventually be a world champion

Given the way Raw’s roster is currently constructed, there is a path for Zayn to eventually dethrone current World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and/or fall victim to a cash-in by “Mr

Money in the Bank” Seth Rollins

Zayn has a lengthy on-screen history with both Gunther and Rollins, and given all of the indications that Zayn’s first-ever world title could be near, it makes sense for WWE to capitalize on his recent momentum to catapult him to another world title match

Maybe that’s just wishful thinking, but Zayn remains one of WWE’s most captivating stars and is one of just a few stars with a logical built-in storyline as pursues his first world title

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