Jonathan Coachman isn’t backing off his criticism of Sami Zayn’s latest WWE Championship run — and now he’s dropped a line that’s probably going to make the argument even louder. After a fan accused the former WWE personality of “hating” Zayn’s success, Coachman fired back by saying there’s a reason wrestling has lower-level championships because not everybody is built to be the world champion.
The exchange came after Coachman found himself in the middle of a wrestling Twitter pile-on over his reaction to Zayn beating CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Zayn recaptured the championship from Punk on the September 11 episode of WWE SmackDown in a chaotic main event that included interference from Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae and Kevin Owens.
Coachman had already questioned WWE putting the championship back on Zayn after previously getting dragged for building a video around a parody post claiming The Undertaker produced Punk vs. Zayn. That mess turned into Coachman arguing with fans over whether they actually listened to his point or just saw the fake post and immediately roasted him. Then one fan went straight at Coachman and asked why he seems to have a problem with Zayn winning.
“Why does Coach hate Sami’s success? This isn’t the first time he’s been upset about Sami winning.”
Coachman didn’t let that one sit. He responded by saying fans are completely misunderstanding his argument and insisted this has nothing to do with wanting Zayn to fail.
“Ok I will keep trying to engage when I see something. This is the problem a lot of you have. You think I have an issue with his success. You clearly don’t know anything about how storylines and intrigue is done in wrestling. I speak from a place of being in the meetings for thousands of shows.”
Coachman then explained that his issue is what he calls “perception.” In his view, WWE has to make fans believe that somebody belongs in a particular role, especially when that person is carrying the biggest championship in the company. He even dragged The Rock into the comparison while making his point.
“It’s about perception and if you want people to believe in someone or something it has to make sense. If the Rock was 6 feet 200 pounds being called the Rock wouldn’t make any sense.”
Then came the part that’s going to keep Sami Zayn fans busy. Coachman flat-out said wrestling has secondary championships for a reason because not everybody is meant to be the top champion.
“There is a reason there are lower titles because not everybody’s made to be a world champion.”
That line lands at an especially interesting time because WWE just put its biggest championship back on Zayn for the second time in less than three months. Ringside News previously covered that WWE apparently has a larger story and timeline behind putting the title back on Zayn, with several major names now circling the championship picture.
The Mexico City crowd also wasn’t exactly giving Zayn the hometown-hero treatment before his victory. Fans inside Arena CDMX hammered Zayn with boos and an NSFW chant before he defeated Punk, something Coachman previously pointed toward while questioning the title change.
Still, Coachman insists people are twisting criticism of WWE’s booking into some personal vendetta against Zayn. He said he wants everyone in wrestling to succeed and specifically stated that he wants Sami to do well.
“So instead of just reading headlines actually listen to what we say in our shows it has nothing to do with anyone or anybody success. I want everybody to be successful. It’s a very small business. I want Sammy to be successful. I don’t know him personally.”
Coachman then brought everything back to his original argument. For him, this is about whether the character holding WWE’s biggest championship is believable in that position.
“But this is about putting together a show with characters that are believable in that space that’s it.”
So Coachman says he doesn’t hate Sami Zayn, doesn’t want to see him fail and isn’t angry that he’s successful. His argument is that WWE has to convince viewers someone belongs at world-champion level — and dropping the line that “not everybody’s made to be a world champion” while Sami is literally holding the belt is probably not going to make Zayn’s fans any less irritated.
Coachman keeps trying to explain that he’s critiquing the booking and not the man, but every new response seems to throw another gallon of gas on this thing. What started with a fake Undertaker post has now turned into a full-blown debate over whether Sami Zayn actually looks and feels like WWE’s top champion.
Do you think Jonathan Coachman has a point about not everybody being made to be a world champion, or do you think he’s selling Sami Zayn short? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
