The Bell Center vibrated this weekend, and for once the person behind the madness was neither a hockey player nor Jon Bon Jovi.
Posted at 8:18 p.m
It was more like Sami Zayn. Friday Smackdown! (a weekly WWE show airing in Montreal this week), the Laval wrestler received a standing ovation for more than five minutes.
TVA Sports’ La Lutte WWE Raw host Pat Laprade believes this is the longest ovation in Bell Center history, ahead of that for Saku Koivu in 2002.
On Saturday, Zayn wrestled champion Roman Reigns in the finals of The Elimination Chamber Show. A unanimously celebrated fight, delivered in front of 17,271 spectators who roared from start to finish.
In fact, the two wrestlers spent the first few minutes of the match each in their corner, buried by the “Sami, Sami,” the “F*** you Roman,” and even a “Va ch*** Roman,” in French. The spectators set the pace. The smallest blow triggered a reaction in the stands. The match certainly consists of a series of predetermined scenarios, but the best wrestlers are the ones who manage to make viewers forget that it’s a spectacle.
“When the audience is the star of an event, it’s a sign that you have something special. Even backstage it was deafening,” commented Paul Triple H Levesque, former wrestler turned WWE Creative Team Director.
Later in his press conference, Levesque delivered a moving tribute to Zayn.
“He reminds me of Mick Foley in the way he clicks with a crowd. Then he makes you laugh. A minute later you feel sorry for him. It’s hard to put into words, but he’s an incredible performer. »
This Levesque is influential. “He’s the big decision maker of all WWE storylines,” said Laprade. When such an influential person compares Zayn to Mick Foley, it’s quite a compliment and bodes well for Zayn’s future at the company. »
Foley, best known for his characters Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love, was one of the biggest stars of the late 1990s and, like Zayn, didn’t have the typical looks of a champion, with his shaggy beard, mutilated ear, and well-hidden musculature.
Without looking like Foley, Zayn is notable for having a physique comparable to Phillip Danault. The contrast was stark alongside Reigns, a former defender for the Edmonton Eskimos who was covered in tattoos and built like a Greek god.
“Kevin Owens has often been compared to Mick Foley but this is the first time Zayn has been compared to Foley. Even if they don’t have the same physique, the comparison is very good, Laprade believes. Zayn doesn’t have the physique that WWE has accustomed us to, especially for wrestlers going into the finals. What unites the three is the atypical look, but also the passion for the fight. »
No fairy tale
WWE now holds press conferences after their biggest shows, like Saturday’s.
The exercise is special. There, the wrestlers arrive to their entrance music, and some “journalists” applaud. Some wrestlers stay in character. Austin Theory, for example, taunted everyone he spoke to. “Have you what, 10 questions in one? do you feel so special ‘ he began to the first who dared to pick up the microphone.
Surreal exchange to the next. Theory concluded his response by asking his interlocutor to “ask a better question next time.”
– I’m sorry, answered the one who asked the said question.
– The farm.
However, Zayn tried to say as much as possible without openly acknowledging that the outcome of the fights is scripted. On the border between Sami Zayn, the wrestler who had just lost a championship fight, and Rami Sabei, the person who had just experienced a moment of the anthology in front of his family, in front of his wife in the front row, Pierre Auch Houde, the family his old friend Kevin Owens just behind.
Again, knowing that every wrestler’s goal is to become a champion, the line between the real and the “arranged” blurs because of the recognition that comes with a title.
“I would have liked it to end in a fairy tale, for me and for the Montreal fans,” Zayn said. I know what it is, you know what it is, but some of it is true. I looked at the spectators after the fight, they all looked disappointed.
“It’s like Georges St-Pierre came back to Montreal and lost. It ends badly even if the fight is excellent. And our fight was excellent. Rationally, I’m very aware of that. But right now I’m feeling this disappointment. Maybe tomorrow I’ll say, “God, what was I thinking, that was great.” People were on their feet for five minutes and we didn’t even touch! »