Val Venis Blasts Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes After Night of Champions Title Change

Sami Zayn’s Night of Champions 2026 triumph was the kind of moment that generated wall-to-wall celebration — but not everyone was raising a glass. Former WWE star Val Venis took to social media after Zayn defeated Cody Rhodes and GUNTHER in a Triple Threat Match to capture the Undisputed WWE Championship, and he had absolutely nothing complimentary to say about either man involved.

Venis unloaded a two-pronged attack, first going after both Zayn and Rhodes with a sweeping dismissal of the current generation’s top talent. In his own words: “Both of these losers would carry my bags, and polish my boots. The IT FACTOR guys like Hogan, The Rock, Austin, Undertaker and Triple H raised the bar of eligibility to unheard of heights. Its super cool that boss man Triple H lowered the bar to ‘dumpster on fire’ levels so the less fortunate could get a shot while the corporation looks to discover their next IT FACTOR guy like Hogan, Rock, or Austin.”

Venis wasn’t finished there. He followed up with a direct shot at Rhodes following the former champion’s loss, posting: “@CodyRhodes you absolute loser! You lost to a communist who could not lace my boots on his best day.”

The comments are unlikely to land as serious criticism within the wrestling community, but they do reflect a strain of old-guard thinking that measures every generation against the all-time commercial peaks of the Attitude Era. Zayn’s championship win — a culmination of one of WWE’s longest-running storylines — was widely viewed as a hard-earned, crowd-pleasing payoff. Rhodes, meanwhile, had been a central figure in WWE’s main event picture for years heading into the match.

Venis, who had a notable run in WWE during the late 1990s and early 2000s, has become an occasional social media provocateur in retirement. Whether the posts represent genuine conviction or a bid for attention, they’ve done their job in drawing a reaction.