This weekend, all indications are that Montreal will be positively electric for WWE Elimination Chamber. The Road to WrestleMania and the staging of two eponymous Chamber matches are, in and of themselves cause for excitement. What really elevates this event, though, is the main event confrontation scheduled between Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns.
This match will be pay off months of captivating storytelling around The Bloodline faction, but no less importantly, positions Zayn as the number one contender when he’s one of the most over babyfaces WWE has had in years, and all the better in front of a hometown crowd that doesn’t play host to major WWE events all that often.
As the wrestling world casts its eyes on Montreal, there’s no better time to look back at some of the biggest moments WWE has staged in this very same city across the years.
5. Breaking Point 2009
WWE has only staged one PPV branded under the Breaking Point name. That’s understandable, as it was a niche concept to focus on submission matches. Nonetheless, the 2009 event was a compelling one. It featured an excellent Falls Count Anywhere Submission Match between DX and Legacy, in which Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr. made Shawn Michaels tap out to a tandem hold. That’s not to mention one of the better matches in the John Cena vs. Randy Orton omnibus, as they competed under I Quit rules.
Unfortunately, an otherwise solid PPV tends to get overshadowed by a poor main event. WWE booked itself into a corner with heel World Heavyweight Champion defending against The Undertaker. It seemed clear WWE both didn’t want to take the title off Punk less than a month after he’d won it from Jeff Hardy, but also wanted to protect The Dead Man—both on his own merits and because he would ultimately win the feud.
The powers that be opted for perhaps the least satisfying conclusion possible to the nine-minute match, with Punk scoring a phantom submission victory with the Anaconda Vice, in a finish that called back to the Montreal Screwjob. That ending might have been intended to read as poetic, but the consensus among fans was that it felt like lazy booking that rubbed salt in a wound WWE really should have left alone.
4. Shawn Michaels Trolls Montreal In 2005
Over the summer of 2005, the feud between Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels became one of the most fun storylines WWE had to offer. The two were set for a legitimate dream match at SummerSlam, and on the road there, HBK momentarily embraced his old heelish personality, much to the entertainment of the fans.
A climactic moment in the build came when Raw aired out of Montreal. The music for Bret Hart– who had been gone from the company for nearly eight years, last appearing in Montreal–rang out to the shock and exhilaration of the fans in attendance. The Hitman wasn’t coming, though. Instead, it was Michaels demonstrating an uncanny ability to draw nuclear heat, teasing Hart was there only to go on roasting the fans and Hogan alike.
3. Sami Zayn Challenges John Cena In 2015
John Cena spent a good chunk of 2015 in the United States Championship picture, highlighted by his fun weekly US Championship Open Challenge. This series of matches saw him take on a variety of fresh, often unlikely opponents. Moreover, it marked a high point for Cena’s career as he paid a decade of success forward. He made a number of less established talents look terrific when they held their own with, or even came close to beating the guy who had up until recently been the face of the company.
There may have been no greater moment in the US Championship Open Challenge series than when Sami Zayn—then, one of the most popular stars of NXT—made his surprise main roster debut and drew a huge pop from the Montreal faithful. Unfortunately, Zayn suffered a fluke injury on his entrance to the ring, but it’s a testament to his talent and composure that he toughed out the match just the same, putting on a star-making performance in defeat.
2. Brock Lesnar Debuts On The Raw After WrestleMania 18
The Raw after WrestleMania has a well-established history of being one of the wildest nights in wrestling on annual basis. With the biggest show of the year out of the way and a lot of eyes on the product, this is often an episode with big returns or debuts, or other momentous storyline developments.
In 2002, the Raw after WrestleMania went down in Montreal and featured a thread of The Rock and Hulk Hogan feuding with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. That’s not to mention the announcement of the original brand extension that would lead to Raw and SmackDown having totally separate rosters.
Perhaps most exciting of all, though, Montreal was witness to the main roster debut of Brock Lesnar. Now that The Beast is one of the biggest names in wrestling history, it’s hard to recall a tie when he was just a face in the crowd. That’s literally what Lesnar, was though, when he hopped the barricade and absolutely destroyed Spike Dudley, Maven, and Al Snow to make his presence felt. He’d spend that whole next year on a tear, culminating in main eventing the next WrestleMania.
1. The Montreal Screwjob
No list of major moments in WWE history in Montreal would be complete without a nod to The Montreal Screwjob. The events of Survivor Series 1997 have been discussed and dissected ad nauseam. The central takeaway that WWE, in real life, screwed Bret Hart out of the WWE Champoinship with a phantom submission loss to Shawn Michaels.
That finish put an end to one of the most storied rivalries—on and off-screen—in WWE history and forever changed the course of The Hitman’s career. Moreover, the moment changed WCW history as Hart joining their roster fresh off Montreal caused chaos and contributed to a wildly over complicated main event to Starrcade 1997, blowing the climax of what was otherwise one of the best stories the company had ever told between Sting and Hollywood Hogan.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the Montreal Screwjob marked one of the starkest breakdowns of the kayfabe-reality spectrum ever. It was a key moment in ushering in WWE’s Attitude Era, as well as establishing Mr. McMahon as a heel character who’d define so much of the product for years to come, across one of WWE’s hottest periods.
While WWE hasn’t spent a lot of time in Montreal relative to other major markets in North America, there’s nonetheless significant history embedded there. Win, lose, or draw, it seems entirely possible Sami Zayn will add a very significant chapter to that story at Elimination Chamber 2023.
