The Story So Far: Karrion Kross Vs. Sami Zayn At WWE SummerSlam 2025

This weekend's bout between Karrion Kross and Sami Zayn at SummerSlam has been months in the making, with Kross making it his mission to tear down the righteous character of Zayn. 

Much of their story so far has been gradually unraveled throughout weekly segments on "WWE Raw," with Kross finishing up his tale with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 40 and turning his attention to the "Underdog from the Underground" since. Kross has been there to rub salt in Zayn's wounds after his shortcomings in fighting for the number one contendership to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, whether that be in the King of the Ring tournament or as part of his adjacent conflict with Seth Rollins and The Vision. All while consistently hammering home an idea that Zayn will never break his World title duck until he comes to terms with the fact he is lying to himself. 

Meanwhile, Zayn has insisted in the other direction that he will win a world title and he will be doing it the right way, further provoking Kross into a more physical form of coercion. Kross' aim has been to strip away from the hero that Zayn styles himself as, given that he himself is a self-styled soothsayer to the evil lurking within everyone. But when they met in the ring for their first match at Night of Champions, Zayn was not only welcomed as a hero to the Riyadh crowd but secured a hero's victory over the villain via clean means. 

That has seen Kross take his antagonism of Zayn a step further, introducing a steel pipe into the equation and beating him so badly, he was unable to compete in the gauntlet match to determine the number one contender for Gunther's World title this weekend. Against all advice, Zayn returned to action earlier than he should have done to face Kross on the July 21 episode of "Raw" and thus found himself on the losing end after Scarlett handed the steel pipe to Kross behind the referee's back, tying their saga at 1-1 and precipitating their trilogy bout at SummerSlam.