After coming up just short of his ultimate goal in an impromptu WWE World Heavyweight Championship match with Seth Rollins on Monday Night RAW, Sami Zayn found himself in the awkward position of having to set any animosity aside in order to work with the Cody Rhodes' babyface faction against the Judgment Day, a bit of emotional maturity that another recent title challenger, Drew McIntyre, decidedly opted against in favor of taming up with Rhea Ripley and company ahead of Survivor Series.

Discussing how it felt to see McIntyre firmly go to the dark side in a recent appearance on The Bump, the “Underdog From the Underground” admitted he simply doesn't understand what the “Scottish Warrior” was doing.

“It just kind of hard to make sense of it all. We’ve been, all of us have been wrapped up with The Judgment Day for so long,” Sami Zayn told The Bump. “I’d say now, just a week out from Survivor Series, from WarGames, this throws a major monkey wrench, I don’t know, it’s just a big curveball. I don’t think anybody saw it coming.”

When Matt Camp pointed out that McIntyre's complaints largely stem from Zayn's own time in The Bloodline, The Bump's host asked if he felt any connection to the recent goings on, to which fans were afforded a very interesting answer indeed.

“Look, to an extent, I can understand where he’s coming from. If anybody can relate, actually, it’s me. Because I had a very similar experience going into a title fight with Roman Reigns with all the momentum in the world, and it seemed like a lock. It’s very hard to come that close to winning a championship, and then having it slip through your fingers an if you’re not careful, it could really play with your head, and I think that’s kind of the difference between Drew McIntyre and myself. I think we both experienced something kind of similar and just had different ways of dealing with it. Maybe it was a little different for me because I still got to win the tag team championships with Kevin Owens, I still got to main-event WrestleMania, I still kind of got to watch The Bloodline fall, to a certain extent, and I was kind of happy to see Jey come out on the other side. I think for Drew, we went through something similar. But I don't know, maybe the fallout of everything that happened to him is obviously what led him to this decision, and obviously he’s had a hard time letting go of everything that happened, and I think he just blames Jey, which, again, to an extent, I can undertake because I’ve been in his shoes. But I don’t know, I can’t speak for him. I’m sure he’s gonna explain it himself. But it's disappointing to see.”

If it wasn't for The Bloodline, would McIntyre still be in league with Judgment Day, serving as a classic example of a performer becoming the very thing they hate most in the pursuit of power? Maybe yes, maybe no, but with WarGames rapidly approaching, Zayn has to set his own feelings aside to do what's best for the rest of the team.

Sami Zayn isn't worried about teaming with Seth Rollins at WarGames.

Continuing his conversation with Matt Camp, Megan Morant, and company, Sami Zayn was asked how it feels to have to team up with the man who bested him for his first title opportunity in eight months and if it will affect his ability to give it his all at WarGames.

While Zayn would obviously like to be champion right now, much like Drew McIntyre, in the end, he's going to do what's best for WWE and stand against the Judgment Day.

“So once again, I find myself in a very similar situation to Drew because the first time around, for me in Montreal or for him at Clash at the Castle, it would have been easy to say, well, outside variables interfered and that's why I came close or something like that, but at Crown Jewel, there were no excuses for Drew, like you said, Drew just happened to be three seconds better. And now for me, just a week ago, two weeks ago now, same boat, I managed to get that opportunity again, there are no excuses, it just slipt through my fingers,” Sami Zayn told The Bump.

“I don't think I'll have a problem teaming with Seth. You know, the thing about WWE is you have to look at things on a much longer timeline, and if you live or die based on what happened last week or the week before, it's not a good place to be; you'll find yourself in a really negative headspace. You have to look at the totality; okay, what happened in Montreal happened, it slipped through my fingers, it doesn't mean it's the end. You know, now you go, ‘Oh my god, it's 10 months later, and oh my goodness, here's another opportunity, and that one kind of slips through your fingers.' Again, you have to assume, you have to know in your heart that at some point, that opportunity is going to come up again, so I don't have any animosity toward Seth Rollins. I don't, I've known him for a long time, he's had a h*ll of a competition between he and I and he caught me by surprise; he really did, I did not see it coming. But I don't think it will effect my ability to team with him against the Judgment Day at WarGames in any way.”

Could Zayn end up turning on Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, and Jey Uso at Survivor Series, or maybe just not go all-out for a WarGames victory? Sure, anything's possible, but at the time being, Zayn is just about the biggest Babyface the WWE Universe has to offer, and that's not going to change because he came up short in a friendly title match.