At Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn came as close as anyone to ending Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns’ 900 days of dominance.
Zayn gave his everything in front of a hometown crowd that cheered their favourite to the rafters while showering The Tribal Chief with chants of “F**k you Roman!”.
Despite Roman Reigns taking full control of much of the match, Zayn came up from underneath on more than one occasion to get near-falls with a Blue Thunder Bomb and a Helluva Kick.
Things broke down late on after a referee was knocked unconscious. Jimmy Uso took to the ring to attack Zayn with multiple Super Kicks and an Uso Splash but it wasn’t enough as Zayn kicked out on two.
When the second official was taken out with a dodged Superman Punch, Paul Heyman gave Reigns a chair, but Jey Uso appeared and prevented him from using it. Zayn tried to take advantage of Jey’s presence to attack Reigns from behind, but The Head of the Table moved and Uso ate a Spear.
Reigns then grabbed the chair and launched a vicious assault on Zayn followed by a Spear for the win, ending Zayn’s fairytale journey to the main event.
Sami Zayn “feels strange” after loss
In the post-show press conference, Sami Zayn opened up about his heartbreaking defeat, admitting that he was affected by the unhappy ending to his journey to the main event.
“I feel strange. And that might be the recurring theme for these answers. It was kind of an unhappy ending tonight, and I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t affect me.
“This is a dream come true…you ever have a dream where it’s going in a certain direction, and then you wake up right before. It was like a dream, a dream come true, it was surreal…it’s everything you could ever want.”
Despite this, Zayn says there is a part of him that wishes he got the happy ending everyone was hoping for.
“And the storybook ending obviously has a certain ending to it. And that’s not what happened tonight. And I can’t act like there isn’t a small part of me like ah, I wish I could have given that ending. To the people, to that story, to myself, to my family, to Montreal. I know what this is, we all know what this is, but some of it’s real, man.”
H/T to F4WOnline.com for the above transcription