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Unfortunately for the fans in Montreal, Sami Zayn did not pull out the win at the 2023 WWE Elimination Chamber. Despite having the entire crowd of 17,000 ravenous Quebecers cheering him on, Zayn quickly found himself facing off against a much bigger, faster, and stronger foe, and ultimately failed to secure the WWE's ultimate prize, even if Roman Reigns had to jump through some serious hoops to make it happen.
Discussing the match during the post-Elimination Chamber press conference, Zayn reflected on the night and acknowledged that even if the match didn't have the result he wanted, he still created some moments that will live on forever in WWE history.
“The bar has been raised,” Zayn said. “Being good isn’t good enough anymore. The hardest thing to do in the age of content is to do something memorable. Something that people are going to remember not in a week or two, that’s hard enough on it’s own, but now I think, with this Bloodline thing, if I may be so bold as to toot my own horn and our own horn for everybody in front of the camera, behind the camera, and the performers who are executing this, I think that we’ve walked away from this story, and it’s not it's not even done, with so many memorable tv segments that fans will remember five, ten years down the road.”
“And I hope that Montreal ovation is one of those. Because it’s not every day you see a performer stand in the ring for, someone timed it, five minutes and 22 seconds or something. And it was actually, there’s a Quebec historian in here somewhere named Patric Laprade, he’s a Quebec guy, and in the history of the Bell Centre, it’s the longest ovation, in the history of this building.”
Was Zayn's actual ovation the longest in the Bell Centre's history? It's impossible to know, but even watching the segment back with the context of Reigns' victory, it's clear Zayn made a moment that should live on in professional wrestling history for years to come. If that Zayn's goal, mission accomplished, mon ami.
Montreal's own @SamiZayn recognizes the importance of making moments in WWE that will last a lifetime.#WWEChamber pic.twitter.com/Zy82OpHpVb
— WWE (@WWE) February 19, 2023
The Elimination Chamber was a mixed bag for Sami Zayn.
Elsewhere in his media session, Zayn discussed how he felt immediately after losing his match and the mixed bag of feelings he went through immediately following the 1-2-3, post-match beatdown, and assist from Kevin Owens.
“I want to apologize in advance because I’m feeling very strange,” Zayn said. “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. 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.”
Heading into the match, Zayn knew he was going to lose, so that shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise for the three-time Intercontinental Champion, but watching 17,000 fans look completely deflated because their hometown hero couldn't get it done is certainly a feeling that even a grizzled pro like Zayn will have to get used to.
