Details behind Sami Zayn's emotional Smackdown promo (Patreon)

Sami Zayn had a special segment in Montreal on the February 17 episode of Smackdown ahead of Elimination Chamber.

Zayn had a busy week ahead of the show, showing up to do promotional appearances mid-week, doing media all day Friday, and even doing Raw in Brookyln Monday and getting a speeding ticket. As of Thursday, his opponent Roman Reigns was not scheduled for Friday's Smackdown.

Zayn cut a promo to close out Smackdown, which was always designed to just be one segment. After the heavy online requests from fans, Zayn's original WWE theme "Worlds Apart" was brought back. Michael Hayes was responsible for producing the segment, as he has been for a lot of WWE's high-level, world title related segments since the Bloodline era started.

Those backstage claim that Zayn looked "visibly anxious and nervous" ahead of the promo, but didn't elaborate on what that meant.

We're told that some that were in the know were expecting somewhat of a different promo to occur, but that Zayn accounted for the crowd reaction and let the segment breathe. There was some panic on the production end, having to edit and black out the "Fuck You Roman" chants. There was also one source that claimed that those in the Gorilla position were confused and expecting a different kind of promo, but we've not had that subsequently confirmed by additional sources. Those that we heard from were very happy with how things ended up, with one longtime producer calling it "special."