Sami Zayn Reflects On Incredible Crowd Reaction In Montreal
Sami Zayn has spoken about how it has felt to receive some huge ovations from his hometown WWE crowd in Montreal on Smackdown and Elimination Chamber.
While he came up short in his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn has certainly won the hearts of the WWE Universe, especially in his hometown of Montreal.
It’s very rare for a wrestler to get as hot as Sami Zayn is right now with the audience growing every time he appears on television, the ovations in the arena getting louder and the fans rallying behind him after he was kicked out of The Bloodline group at the Royal Rumble.
Sami Zayn is a sympathetic figure to the audience because was loyal to The Bloodline, he did nothing wrong, but Reigns got jealous of the reactions he got from the fans and that led to Zayn getting attacked by the group except by Jey Uso.
On the February 17th edition of Smackdown, Zayn was put in the main event position in front of the Montreal crowd that was eager to see him. Zayn was cheered by the crowd for over five minutes without saying a word. It was an incredible television moment. When Zayn did speak, he spoke in French to pop the crowd and also told Reigns that he was fighting him as well as Montreal at Elimination Chamber.
During a post-WWE Elimination Chamber press conference, Sami Zayn was asked if he had more to say in his Smackdown promo.
“I had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to say, but then you also have to assess the situation you’re in and adapt. They were giving me a lot, and I’m not about to stop them if they’re doing that, right? That would be a strange choice, as a performer. ‘Hey, you’re screaming a lot. Let’s hit pause on that.'”
“Obviously, we have to roll with it. I think it created a very special, a very memorable reaction, a memorable segment.”
As he continued, Zayn spoke about how special The Bloodline storyline has been.
“I don’t want to drone on about the Bloodline storyline, but what a magic thing, to have so many memorable segments. We’re in the era of content, not just with WWE, but in everything. You have a cell phone in your hand that has access to every piece of information ever, in the palm of your hand, it’s insane. What I think is harder than doing something good now, because we have unbelievable talent now. Everybody is pretty good. The bar has been raised.”
“Being good is not good enough anymore. The harder thing to do in the age of content is doing something memorable. Something people are going to remember, never mind in a week or two, that’s hard enough on its own, but with this Bloodline thing, if I may be so bold 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 we’ve walked away from this story, and it’s not even done, with so many memorable segments, TV segments, that people will remember five, ten years down the road. I hope that Montreal ovation is one of those.”
Sami Zayn also talked about getting an ovation from the crowd that lasted over five minutes and how special it was for him.
“It’s not every day you see a performer stand in the ring for, somebody timed it, it was like five minutes and 22 seconds. There is a Quebec historian here, Pat Laprade, in the history of the Bell Centre, it’s the longest ovation in the history of the building. Uninterrupted ovation. That’s pretty special. I think people will remember that. I had to kind of adapt on the fly.”
While Zayn admitted that he had more to say in this main event Smackdown promo, but he held back and he was appreciative of the ovation he received.
“There was more that I wanted to say. Part of it was things I wanted to say to say to the city. Part of it was things to advance the storyline. Part of it was touching on what I did with Cody (Rhodes) and acknowledging the self-doubt that I showed on Raw a few days prior, but when you’re standing and surrounded by that (ovation), it’s like, ‘let’s just punch them with the good stuff here and take the love that they’re giving,’ which I very much appreciate.”
During the build to Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn also talked about what made his character so endearing to the audience because he’s a trusting person that is easy to relate to.