#1. Backstage notes on Sami Zayn's WWE status, the reason why he was stripped of the title, reported heat and more
The decision to give Sami Zayn his first main roster title was received with overwhelming positivity by the fans. Fast forward to a few weeks later and the leader of 'The Artist Collective' has been stripped of the title after he refused to return to work due to the fears of contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Sportskeeda''s Tom Colohue revealed that WWE did ask Sami Zayn whether he was ready to return to action. Zayn was uncertain about his immediate future and the WWE management realized that the Superstar may not be able to make his comeback for the foreseeable future.
The decision was then made to strip him of the Intercontinental title and a tournament was rightfully announced to crown the new Champion.
Tom noted:
Well, they asked Sami a few times if he was ready to come back. It's been a gradual process, he has not been able to say very certainly that, 'look, I will not be back', until recently. He came to a decision after he went to work at WrestleMania. Obviously had the match there, retained the belt. I don't know what made the decision for him, I'm sure he has his own personal reasons, so I'm going to leave the speculation there. Either way, the WWE knowing that he was not returning, at least for the foreseeable future, decided that they had to rewrite a lot of storylines. So they came up with the idea to strip him of the belt and put on a tournament.
Dave Meltzer also revealed in the Newsletter that there is a lot of unhappiness backstage over Zayn exercising the option to not wrestle during the pandemic.