Will a 2026 Feud Between Zayn and ‘KO’ End Inside Hell in a Cell?

At SummerSlam 2026, Sami Zayn made his way into the ring towards what was believed to be a top Contender’s Match between himself and Finn Bálor. Before the bell rang, SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis came out and announced that Gunther would be added to the match. The surprises didn’t stop there, as Aldis also revealed a fourth competitor to the match: a returning Kevin Owens.  After over a year away from in-ring competition, ‘KO’ returned to the ring and won the match, earning a world title opportunity against CM Punk a few weeks later. During the match, ‘The Last Real Good Guy’ interfered and attacked Punk while the referee was down. He tried to help Owens win but came up short. After ‘The Prizefighter’ declined Zayn’s help, he was then struck in the head with the championship by his friend-turned-foe. ‘The Best in the World’ took advantage of what happened and picked up the victory to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship. A rivalry has now reignited between the former tag team champions, but will their history and years of feuding finally have a payoff inside WWE’s most sadistic structure?

The rivalry between both men began all the way back in 2009, when Owens, formerly known as Kevin Steen, turned heel on his long-time friend, who at the time went by El Generico, at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle. The pair would compete against each other multiple times throughout the years until they reunited in NXT. After Zayn won the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: R Evolution in 2014, things looked fine between the two as they celebrated the moment. As they walked onto the stage, Owens suddenly attacked Zayn, delivering a Pop-Up Powerbomb onto the edge of the ring. Their long-time feud had now made its way onto WWE programming. Six months after the attack, ‘KO’ would capture the NXT Championship off of his former best friend, effectively putting a temporary end to their rivalry on NXT.

Zayn would make his main roster debut in May 2015 after answering John Cena’s United States Championship open challenge, falling short of dethroning ‘The Champ’. Owens would follow suit just a few weeks later, attacking Cena and posing over ‘The Greatest of All Time’ while holding the NXT Championship. Although both men would stray away from a singles match, they would attack each other every time both were involved in a match. One of their most prolific encounters occurred at Battleground 2016, when ‘The Underdog from the Underground’ would finally get his revenge against Owens, delivering a match-winning Helluva Kick to pick up the win and seemingly putting an end to their feud. It wouldn’t be their last encounter, however, as both men competed against each other multiple times in singles competition. As the years went on, they would become best friends and bitter enemies multiple times, with the roles of face and heel shifting a lot. Although their rivalry continued, one of their greatest stories would be told on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

During the road to WrestleMania 39, Zayn was involved with The Bloodline, serving as a helpful hand whenever the faction needed something done. However, when it was time for him to take out Owens, he couldn’t pull the trigger and instead hit ‘The Tribal Chief’ Roman Reigns in the back with a steel chair at Royal Rumble 2023 to a thunderous pop. He would be exiled from the group, but he knew that he needed to take down The Bloodline. Despite the torment he dealt Owens over the past few months, the two men would rekindle their friendship. In the main event of night one of WrestleMania, they would defeat The Usos to become the new Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. The men who once went through hell to hurt each other were now standing on top of the mountain in one of the best tag team matches in WrestleMania history. They would have a lengthy reign with the belts before dropping them to Judgment Day.

The next few years saw both men split and turn into enemies once again, but Owens would eventually be forced to step away from the ring after dealing with a serious neck injury. After returning over a year later at SummerSlam 2026, many thought Zayn would be happy to see a long-time friend make an emotional return to the ring. Instead, he was filled with jealousy and anger that his friend would return to take a world title opportunity away from him. That is why, when Owens rejected Zayn’s offer of attacking Punk with the belt, ‘The Last Real Good Guy’ instead chose to attack ‘KO’ with the belt. He was no longer interested in his friendship, as his eyes were set on winning back the belt; he lost just nine days after capturing it at Night of Champions 2026. What better way to rekindle the feud and put a rightful end to it inside Hell in a Cell? The structure may have lost its aura over the past few years thanks to the overuse of it, but ever since Triple H’s takeover of creative, the cell has only been used to close out long and high-profile feuds. One of the most recent Cell matches that brought back the danger of the stipulation was the 2024 feud between Punk and Drew McIntyre, who squared off inside the hell in one of WWE's bloodiest matches in recent years, culminating in one of WWE’s biggest storylines at that time. Hell in a Cell once again proved it can be destructive when it needs to be, and there’s no better feud to host inside the structure than the decades-long feud between Owens and Zayn.

Both men could end up writing one of the best endings to a rivalry in history should their paths take them inside Hell in a Cell. Now that their feud has a purpose, it only makes sense for both men to keep growing their hatred for one another. Zayn wants to prevent anyone from capturing the world title, even if it’s someone he knows all too well, and Owens wants revenge against the man who cost him a world title run after 10 long years. However, WWE chooses to run this feud; one can only hope that the payoff ends up inside the sadistic structure.