WWE SmackDown star and a former three times WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn who is also a former WWE NXT champion recently talked about receiving huge pop from the home crowd of Montreal on the go home Smackdown episode to Elimination Chamber pay per view event.
Sami Zayn has mostly worked as an afterthought throughout his WWE career. He was a mid card at the best, for most of the time he was a lower mid card. In spite of winning the WWE Intercontinental championship three times, he was never been treated as a concrete mid card.
Sami Zayn Discusses Fan Support From Montreal On Go Home Smackdown To Elimination Chamber
But last year, after he became a part of the Bloodline storyline, slowly, he became the most popular face not only of WWE but in the world of sports entertainment. Fans were desperate to see him getting a decent push on the main event level. He was on process of becoming the next megastar of WWE.
At the Elimination Chamber pay per view event, he went on to challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship. That particular show and the go home SmackDown to it, both shows took place at Montreal, which was his hometown. He received huge fan support from Montreal, and it is believed to be one of the biggest crowd pops in WWE history.
Sami Zayn who is also a former WWE NXT champion recently spoke on his Elimination Chamber vlog on WWE Youtube Channel where he talked about receiving huge pop from the home crowd of Montreal on the go home Smackdown episode to Elimination Chamber pay per view event. He said;
“Man, this is just the perfect day, is it? It’s a perfect Montreal day. This whole neighborhood, where those little promotions that maybe, you know, 50-60 people would come to these church basements and community centers. There are a lot in this part of town, the east end of Montreal had a lot of shows, so I’d see these churches sometimes and be like, oh, man, I wrestled there, I remember that. I remember I wrestled in front of six people.
“The first show I went to was Survivor Series 1997, so I was 13 and it was one thing to watch Survivor Series ’97 and this go, whoa, I would like to be a wrestler, but it’s unfathomable that you would end up in that position, although here we are. But, you know, when you go to a little bar show, the crowds are crazy, those early IWS shows where I first made my name, that was the first time I went to show and I was like, I’m going to do this, here, this thing, because the ring is right there.
“So, I just wanted to take that step from here in the second row with wrestlers falling on my lap to being the guy, right there. It was only a five-foot distance versus being in section 423 of the Bell Centre of the machine that was the WWF at the time.
“That’s unfathomable, but when you’re two rows back and the ring is right there and there’s no guardrails and everything, that just seems more unattainable, so that’s what kind of blew my mind. But as far as, little, tiny shows in front of, you know, 50-100 people in this part of town, I didn’t really go to those shows, I just started doing those shows as soon as I broke in.
“These weird little chapters in my life have just worked out perfectly, because as soon as I graduated high school, I started training for wrestling. And then I became a wrestler. While I was in University, I was making my name here in Quebec and, you know, trying to find my footing and started to go to the states.
“As soon as I was graduating, it became this new chapter where I’m actually starting to become a proper independent wrestler, going to the states and doing these things, enough to say to my father that I wanted to try my hand at this wrestling thing instead of going to University, which obviously as an heir apparent wants you to become an engineer or a doctor or whatever. I was like, this wrestling thing is starting to click a little bit, let me just try it out. and I’m burn out from school, I remember he laughed in my face when I said that.”
H/T and transcribed by WrestlingHeadlines.com