Sami Zayn suffered a heartbreak as he was defeated by Roman Reigns in the Elimination Chamber match on Saturday. In the much-hyped contest, Reigns successfully defended his Universal Championship title and will now face off against Cody Rhodes in WrestleMania39.
Fans had expected Zayn to break Reigns’ winning streak as the Master Strategist was playing in front of his home crowd in Montreal, Canada. But that didn’t happen and Zayn expressed his feelings after losing the historic bout.
“It was kind of unhappy ending tonight. And I’d be lying if I said that doesn’t affect me. Of course it’s unbelievable, this is a dream come true. But it’s like a dream come true, I almost said something super inappropriate there I’m so glad my filter kicked in. You ever have a dream, I won’t get too specific here but it’s like it’s going in a certain direction and then you wake up right before, right? And 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 the storybook ending obviously has a certain ending to it and it’s not what happened tonight,” said Zayn in the post-match press conference.
The Master Strategist also talked about the disappointment faced by the fans who are expecting him to go all the way in the high-voltage encounter.
“I can’t act like there’s not a small part of me that’s like, ‘ahhh, I wish I could’ve given that ending’ to the people, to the story, to myself, to my family, to my friends, to Montreal. We all know what this is but some of the stuff’s real man. And I don’t know, you just kind of dream of that happy ending and so close but no cigar. So, maybe that’s a small part of this strange feeling that I keep coming back to. It’s also looking out into the crowd after the three count just seeing their faces, I was like, ‘oh, this is not fun.’ They’re hurt. They were so like deflated but not like ‘ahhh’ storyline sort of deflated. It’s just like, ‘oh man!'” Zayn added.
Interestingly, spectators were treated to various unforeseen events as the USOs made an appearance while the Tribal Chief was involved in the clash against Zayn. At one point in the match, when Zayn was on the ground in the ring, Reigns handed a steel chair to Jey Uso to demonstrate his allegiance by using it to attack Zayn. However, Jey appeared perplexed about what to do, and just then Zayn launched a surprise spear move at Reigns. The Tribal Chief managed to evade the attack, but Zayn ended up hitting Jey instead. Reigns then proceeded to brutally strike Zayn multiple times on his back with the chair. In the finishing move, Reigns charged into Zayn with a spear and secured the victory by pinning him.
Another surprising incident had taken the fans off their feet, when following Zayn’s defeat, Kevin Owens entered the ring and attacked Jimmy Uso and Reigns. Owens’ impromptu appearance thrilled the audience, who were treated to a dramatic addition to the night, albeit for a short time as he left the arena promptly after ensuring that the members of The Bloodline had departed.
