After taking a few weeks off of television in December following an unsuccessful effort against Drew McIntyre in the pursuit of a rematch for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on RAW, Sami Zayn finally returned to the ring for WWE's Holiday Tour, working matches with Jey Uso as a tag team in New York and Boston, a singles match against Finn Balor in Quebec, and a tag team match on the very same show alongside he best friend Kevin Owens against The Judgment Day.

Stick around in the ring after his tag team match to talk to the assembled masses in the Place Bell, Zayn discussed just how special the WWE audience has made him feel in his return to the ring, as they lived up to the reputation he's come to expect from a Quebec crowd from the Elimination Chamber back in February.

“You know I've been coming to Montreal as part of WWE for over ten years now. And every single time I've come, man, that was special. I think, ‘There is no way that next time will be quite as special.' and guess what, every time is even more special. And I said this over and over and over for ten years, and after Elimination Chamber in Montreal, with all of you in my corner, there is no way to get more special than that. Again, I was wrong. Somehow, tonight is even more special, again,” Sami Zayn told the crowd in Montreal via Fightful.

“Kevin might have mentioned, he's got his wonderful family who has supported him all these years sitting right here. You see them every time we're in Montreal, you see my family in the front row right here. But tonight is even more special because you may know this about me by now, but I'm a little bit of a private person, I keep things to myself. Some of you might not know this but I have a little boy. And he's this cutie patootie right here in the red shirt. When I'm at home I'm not a WWE superstar, I'm not Sami Zayn, I'm just bah bah. And this young man has never seen me wrestle, he knows nothing about what I do. Tonight is the first time ever he sees me in this ring.”

Describing the Elimination Chamber as his WrestleMania heading into the event, as he was afforded a chance to go toe-to-toe against the man he'd been working for and then plotting against in Roman Reigns for his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, Zayn ultimately came up short in the match and was open about his feelings of rejection after the show. Still, if the match did anything, it cemented Zayn as not only the ultimate “Underdog from the Underground” but a true legend of Montreal athletics.

Reflecting on Sami Zayn's post Elimination Chamber comments.

Speaking of Sami Zayn's post-Elimination Chamber comments after coming up short to Roman Reigns in front of his hometown crowd, it's worth revisiting what he said in the immediate aftermath of the most crushing loss of his career, especially since it set up an actually incredible moment at WrestleMania 39.

“I want to apologize in advance because I'm feeling very strange. I know some of these answers are going to be, maybe not what you would expect. I feel very strange in that, I feel very strangely detached, which I don't know if people want to hear. You want to hear, ‘Wow, I did this. It was awesome. I'm riding high.' I normally am, but I'm feeling very strange, strangely detached, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. On a cognitive level, I know what we just did. I think I still have to see it back and see how it played,” Sami Zayn said via 411 Mania.

“That's a big lesson I've taken out of this storyline with the Bloodline over the past nine, ten months. I'll feel good about something I've done, but I have to see how it played. What were the angles, did they get in tight, did the emotion come through. All that kind of stuff. I'll see how it played. If you asked me these questions tomorrow, I might have very different answers for you, but I feel strange. That might be the recurring theme for some of these answers.

“The other part might be, it was kind of an unhappy ending tonight. I'd be lying if I said that didn't affect me. Of course, it's unbelievable…this is a dream come true. You ever have a dream, it's going in a certain direction, and then you wake up right before. That's kind of what this was. It was like a dream, it's a dream come true, it's surreal, it's everything you could ever want, and a storybook ending obviously has a certain ending to it. That's not what happened tonight. I can't act like there's not a small part of me that is like, ‘Ahhhh, I wish I could have given that ending.' To the people, to the story, to myself, my family, my friends, to Montreal. I know what this is, we all know what this is, but some of this stuff is real. You just kind of dream of that happy ending. So close, but no cigar. Maybe that's a small part of this strange feeling that I keep coming back to. I don't know. It's also, looking out into the crowd after the three count. Seeing their faces, I was like, ‘Oh, this is not fun.' They're hurt. They were so deflated, but not in a storyline sort of deflated.”

Reading over what Zayn had to say after the Elimination Chamber, it's hard not to feel for the “Underdog from the Underground,” as he clearly put his everything into the performance only to come up short because he wasn't “that guy” in the eyes of WWE creative. Fortunately, Zayn was able to use the loss as an excuse to reunite with Kevin Owens, and they rode that reunion all the way to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, where the Indie-rific duo unseated The Usos as the longest-reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE history. In the end, that major disapointment turned out to be just a stepping stone towards an even bigger win in the end.