February 17, 2007. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ring of Honor show.
Earlier in the morning Kevin, Rami (Sami I’ll call Rami here if you don’t mind) and a friend of ours drive to the National Guard Armory where the event is taking place.
It’s Kevin Steen and El Generico’s return to Ring of Honor. In fact, Rami had been there twice late last year. Nothing regular had come of it.
On the way, the boys are a little scared. The two had a chance at ROH in 2005. But it was short lived. It hadn’t clicked. In the meantime, they had worked to perfect their work, wrestling in the PWG, throughout the United States, Japan, and so on.
I will always remember. Somewhere down the 87 toward Philadelphia, Kevin tells us that if it doesn’t work out this time, he’ll start thinking about doing something else with his life.
The game is important.
Screenwriter is Gabe Sapolsky. He doesn’t want his wrestlers to wear t-shirts. Kevin has his “undershirt,” a Kurt Angle-style leotard. Rami, in generic, has a mask and long panties. But misfortune happens. A few days before the show, Rami contracted a staph infection. Kevin is stressed. He wonders if it won’t harm them. More fear than harm. We decide to let him wrestle in a t-shirt and the match goes ahead as planned.
your opponents? Mark and Jay Briscoe.
The Briscoes’ goal is to make the two Quebecers look good. And that happens. Sitting in the crowd I knew we had something special as the crowd started shouting their joy for the four wrestlers.
The Briscoes win the game, but Kevin and Rami won everything else.
As they walk through the curtains, Sapolsky tells them, “Home run boys, home run!”
Her career had started.
April 1, 2023. Los Angeles, CA. It’s WrestleMania.
An event that 16 years ago was just an unattainable dream for guys like Kevin and Rami.
But they worked hard to get there. Not just before he was signed by WWE, but after as well.
In 2019, Kevin didn’t even have a match at WrestleMania, while injuries didn’t help Rami position himself well.
And even in the weeks and months leading up to last night, there were so many doubts and questions surrounding their game.
“They should have let Sami win in Montreal!”
“They should have reunited Kevin and Sami in Montreal!”
“Charlotte and Rhea will reach the finals!”
“They will let the Usos win!”
“Vince will change everything!”
And seriously, the fears were justified. The whole thing could have taken a very different tangent than one 100 times. Someone could have hurt themselves. Another talent could have convinced the league leaders to put him in the final. We could have made sure the titles didn’t change hands.
But internally, the decision was made for a long time, both about the place the game would take and the outcome.
8:30 p.m. Pacific Time. 11:30 p.m. Quebec City.
After more than three hours of performance, it’s the long-awaited moment. The bell is about to ring to announce the start of the fight.
The pressure is at its peak because so far we’re going through an entire WrestleMania.
John Cena opened it all up with the kids at the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The team’s quadruple threat was spectacular. Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul lived up to expectations and more. The all-female three-on-three without being bad was right, nothing more. But right after that, father and son Mysterios delivered the goods. Charlotte and Rhea may not have made it to the finals, but they delivered one of the best women’s matches in company history.
In short, all were good. Failure is not possible. There’s not even room for error. And there were no mistakes.
At around 8:54 p.m., after more than 20 furious minutes, Rami fell on Jey.
One two. And three!
The three seconds these two boys have been waiting for. Kevin and Rami achieve the impossible. They are WWE Tag Team Champions.
As I stood in section 216 of the stadium, I burst into tears. Literally and for several minutes.
Surrounded by three of my friends, I was heartbroken. Like a part of me was in the arena with them.
Because I was a privileged witness to this astonishing yet improbable ascent. I’ve seen the sacrifices these guys have made for 20 years.
I was on the phone with Kevin when he was still a gas station attendant because wrestling didn’t pay enough. I was with them both as we drove back and forth from Montreal to Philadelphia to salvage a hotel room that the promoter didn’t always pay for or simply because one of the two was working on Sundays.
I texted Kevin and Rami after their game. Something short and simple. You must have received dozens of text messages. Because they really are two good guys. Two good guys who never forgot where they came from and who helped them.
They had the PWG logo on their costumes. In a press conference, Kevin took the time to thank Super Dragon and the Briscoes. And I don’t want to thank you for that, but the list goes on.
I spoke to Terry, Kevin’s father, who was there. I wrote to Suzanne, her mother, who had to live in Marieville. I wrote to Khadija, Rami’s wife. Emotion, pride and joy were at their peak.
I frankly told Suzanne that this was the result of 20 years of sacrifice for the whole family.
And his answer was so simple: “It was worth it!”
It was worth it. And yet 20 years is a lot. Twenty years of encouragement, twenty years of backslapping. Twenty years of comforting words.
But after 24 minutes and 17 seconds of a game, it’s like the millions of minutes before don’t count anymore.
It was worth it.
I often think back to that weekend of February 17, 2007.
Fifteen hour drive. No certainty what the future held for her. All for starvation wages.
And that was to remain the case for many years to come. But they never gave up, they worked hard and prevailed at the right time. The hours on the road, the injuries and the hard beatings. The screams, the tears and the disappointments. The life of an acrobat, far from family, far from children, far from spouse.
Kevin. Rummy. Know that I’m proud of you. Know that your family is proud of you. Know that wrestling fans in Quebec and around the world are proud of you.
But most of all, I hope you’re proud of yourself. Because sometimes we are too close to what we do to make it happen, I wish with all my heart that you be proud of your work and proud of who you have become.
Your career is far from over. And things won’t always go well. You will encounter other pitfalls and you will experience other disappointments.
If it’s going to happen, remember that date, remember April 1, 2023. Remember how you felt at 8:54 PM last night.
And tell yourself, no matter how difficult it was, it was worth it!
A flawless
Consider this part of my text as another blog. Because apart from the emotions, I have other things to say about this historical game.
We use an English phrase in the wrestling world, “textbook match,” which basically means a match straight out of the instruction manual.
And that’s what Kevin, Rami and the Usos delivered. Flawless as it looks in F1. A 24-minute game that kept a good rhythm, that made the 70,000 people on site react and, above all, ended at the right time.
You never want to go too long and miss the ultimate reaction you can get from the audience. They want to be the biggest reaction of the fight when the bell rings. And that’s exactly what happened last night.
A masterpiece.
The game in numbers:
I’m a statistician, you know, so here are a few.
Grand Slam
First, Kevin becomes the first Quebecer to win the WWE Grand Slam. A Grand Slam winner is someone who wins the WWE or Universal Title, Intercontinental Title, US Title, and Tag Team Title. It will be the 23rd in WWE history.
No More Finals at WrestleMania – Canadian Wrestlers
Bret Hart (3)
Kevin Owens (2)
edge (2)
Christian Benoit (1)
Roddy Piper (1)
Christian Jericho (1)
Sami Zain (1)
Wrestlers with at least two consecutive WrestleMania finals
Roman Reigns, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Triple H, Yokozuna, Steve Austin and Kevin Owens.
More WrestleMania First Night Finals
Kevin Owens (2)
Owens is the only one with more than one final on the first night.
All Quebec WWE Tag Team Champions
Quebecers: Jacques Rougeau and Pierre-Carl Ouellet (3)
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (2)
Jacques and Raymond Rougeau (1)
It’s worth remembering that yesterday Owens and Zayn won the Raw Tag Team Titles and the SmackDown Tag Team Titles.
They are also the first all-Quebec duo to win the WWE Tag Team Titles since the Quebecers won them three times in 1993 and 1994. In the WWE Record Books, they are the only two Quebec teams to have won the titles, but technically the Rougeau brothers had also won them in August 1987 before the decision was reversed (Dusty Finish).
WrestleMania Finals Tag Team Matches
Hulk Hogan & Mr. T v. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff (1985, WrestleMania 1)
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn v. Jimmy & Jey Uso (2023, WrestleMania 39)
It was also the first time the tag team titles had been defended in the finals of a WrestleMania.
The most successful Quebecers in WWE
Christian Benoit (12)
Kevin Owens (9)
Sami Zain (6)
Jacques Rougeau (5)
Sylvain Grenier (4)
Patrick Patterson (3)
Rick Hammer (3)
WrestleMania Part 2 Predictions:
Finally, here are my predictions for the second part of WrestleMania. I was 4 out of 7 yesterday.
· Undisputed WWE Champion Roman Reigns v. Cody Rhodes
Oh Cody
Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair v. asuka
Oh Bianca
· Intercontinental Champion Gunther v. Drew McIntyre v. Scheimus
or Gunther
edge c. Finn Balor in a Hell in a Cell match
oedge
Brock Lesnar v. Omos
or omo
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez v. Nataklya & Shotzi c. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler v. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green
or Ronda & Shayna
Four out of six!
This is the fourth of six WrestleMania live blogs. Thursday I published an interview with Kevin Owens. On Friday I spoke to you about Mike Bailey and the opening of the Dodgers. Yesterday I told you about SmackDown. And tomorrow I’ll come back to night two of WrestleMania.