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Sunday July 31 2016 – EBWF Sacrifice – The Sprint Center – Kansas City; Missouri
The Sacrifice pay-per-view was finally upon us as the EBWF took over the Sprint Center in Kansas City with seven excellent matches taking place on the night. Not only were there three number one contender matches taking place, there was only a few moment remaining until Sami Zayn would headline the show, battling it out against his long-time rival in PJ Black with the Path to Glory Championship on the line. Fans already knew that despite this match, Sami was getting his World Championship match against Chris Jericho, however, even he couldn’t turn down an opportunity to compete for the championship he had never held, in particular against an opponent he knew so well. Things didn’t exactly go his way the last time he was in the ring, on Monday Night Warfare he felt once again what defeat tastes like, despite it being a tag team contest. However, a singles match was a whole different ball game and fans knew that the second Sami’s music hit the PA system, he was going to be the most focused they had ever seen him. Determined to end his feud with PJ Black in the best way possible; walking out with the championship title.
It was almost time for the main event as the fans got set for the music to hit at any time. Eventually, it did, and the fans erupted into cheers as “World’s Apart” by CFO$ blasted the PA system and the ‘Ole!’ chants quickly followed. Sami eventually danced his way through the curtains, nodding his head in sync with his theme music, before shouting “Let’s Go!” in typical fashion to pump himself up.
JOEY STYLES: Now there's a man full of confidence that tonight, he leaves Kansas as the NEW Path to Glory Champion!
COREY GRAVES: You’re right Joey, but confidence does not matter at all in a match like this, against an opponent like PJ Black. He’s experienced in title matches; he knows how to retain his championship and tonight I feel that this great singles run of Sami Zayn will come crashing down as soon as that 450 Splash lands.
JOEY STYLES: Confidence is key here, Corey! Experience does matter, and PJ Black can never be ruled out, but this is a man that has achieved so much over the past year, fought through so much from Vertex to CM Punk and Kevin Owens. TONIGHT, Sami Zayn gets his redemption and walks out the new champion.
He continued to dance down the ramp as he scouted the arena, with thousands of fans chanting his name, singing along to his theme music and chanting ‘Ole!’. He smiled on the steel steps before pumping up the audience, getting into the ring as he circled it with Christy Hemme introducing him to the world, the final time before his big match-up with his music still in full blast.
CHRISTY HEMME: Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is scheduled for one-fall! And it is for…the Path to Glory Championship! Introducing the challenger, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada…weighing in at 201 pounds…SAMI ZAYN!
That prompted more cheers as Sami smiled at the fans while stretching on the ropes. He called out to Christy before she could reach her seat, signalling for a microphone, which he received, as he waited for the fans to settle down. Eventually, his music stopped, and he was forced to break-up the thunderous chants, as much as he didn’t want to.
COREY GRAVES: Let’s hear what the man has to say!
SAMI ZAYN: This past Monday…I lost. Well, I say I, I mean we, Baron and I. You can look at it many ways, it was a collective loss on paper, but I wasn’t pinned, it was a tag team match. Regardless of all of that, I’ve realised that one, it sucks. And two, it hasn’t affected me as much as I thought it would. Now, I don’t know if that’s because I’m going up against PJ Black, or because it Baron’s mistake that cost us the match. Either way, I hold my hands up and say the better team, not the better individuals won. Now, I’m glad that I no longer have to force myself to act like a friend to Baron because there are more pressing matter at hand, the Path to Glory Championship.
Fans cheered as Sami continued to hype up the main event against PJ.
SAMI ZAYN: After the match I was in good spirits, surprisingly. I went to the back, had some water, watched over the match before getting cleaned up and heading back out on the road, no questions asked and nothing to worry about at all. On my drive, I had to ask myself what it is I really want? Sure, winning gold in any promotion is fantastic, some guys never get to taste the feeling of having championship gold even once, so yeah a tag team championship run would have been amazing, and I’d have been so appreciative of that too. But did I really want to be a tag team champion? Did I really want to wake up and realise that I’m one-half of the tag team champions? That I'm only half responsible for the success of the team? What that does, is it tells me that somebody like Baron Corbin is on a level playing field with me. That he is as good, as dedicated and as deserving as me, he and I both know that’s not the case. So I got thinking a little more, trying to prove myself wrong, trying to prove to myself that a tag team championship run would have been great, but I realised that what I need and want is to be the World Champion and say that I’m better than every single person contracted to the EBWF. One of the ways to do that is to defeat PJ Black tonight, and I know I’m right when I say that I’m glad this is how it ended up for me tonight.
The cheers continued as Sami justified himself, making his fans understand that a loss didn’t need to result in unhappiness, but it was a good thing for him, he could regroup and focus all of his attention on PJ Black.
SAMI ZAYN: I don’t really know whether it’s a good night for us all, or a great night. I would have either headed into Sacrifice and potentially won the tag team championships with Baron, and I’ve no idea how much damage my body would have taken. Then I would go up against a fresh PJ Black…it wouldn’t look too good for me on paper. That’s what confuses me, I could have either won it all tonight, or lost it all, but I’m pleased that I know I’m leaving tonight as your Path to Glory Champion, so I guess it won’t be too bad of a night for us, right?
Sami laughed as he circled the ring once more, scratching his beard and thinking about something before speaking up before he’d forget.
SAMI ZAYN: I still think I have a little bit of a disadvantage, though, I mean sure, I’ve won plenty of matches this year, it’s been a fantastic run, the confidence is there and all of that good stuff. But…I actually can’t remember the last time I saw PJ in the centre of this ring and competing, by himself. I want to know what he’s doing when he’s not busy losing, and then making excuses for the losses. I’m in this ring all of the time; I want to be because I love this, and I know how much the management rely on me to come here to the ring and put my body on the line, they rely on you to look like the chickenshit champion every company has. So…maybe there’s a bit of ring rust on his behalf, but he’s still the fresher man compared to me. Regardless of all of that, though, I know that even if I had to compete in every single match on the card tonight, whether it was a hardcore style or strong style, I’d STILL go to the ring and dethrone PJ. Deep down he knows that, because he’s been getting away lightly for too long. He hates the fact that he was booked against me of all people, THAT’S why he really hates me, or hates being in the ring with me because he knows that now, nd each and every time we will step in this ring, I will walk out the winner.
JOEY STYLES: You’re telling me this man is going to roll over easily for PJ?
COREY GRAVES: I never said that, I just said PJ’s experience in these matches will help him win. Look, Sami has heart, I’ll give him that, but heart simply isn’t enough to take you to the top and Sami has learnt that the hard way.
SAMI ZAYN: The way I see it, PJ, you should have cashed-in your title for a World Championship when you had your opportunity. You had a genuine chance to defeat Chris Jericho and dethrone him, hell, everybody at the back stands a chance of somehow pulling one out of the bag and picking up the shock result of the year. This could have been yours, But, I think you made a huge mistake, and we all know how things work with you around here. You chose not to cash-in against Chris, and instead you’re defending your gold against me. You’ll lose to me tonight, and then we know you’re going to head to the back and bash your little fingers on your keyboard and complain to the world that the management has been holding you down the second you became champion. When in reality PJ, you’ve held yourself down for so many years that even if you try and break out tonight, even if you do try and become THE single biggest star in the company, it’s just too late for it to even matter anymore. Nobody is going to sit around and wait for you to make a move, you had chance after chance to cash-in and try to become the World Champion, but now your opportunity has passed you by. So, I’m here to make sure that the Path to Glory Championship means something again, and I’m pretty confident that even if I win a World Championship at SummerSlam, and I’m forced to vacate this championship…my one-month reign as the Path to Glory Champion would go down in history as more convincing and more deserving that yours.
The crowd cheered again at Sami’s bold claims, as it sunk in that his comments could, in fact, become a reality, but he wasn’t done as fans knew he and PJ were never going to back down from the verbal or the physical fights.
SAMI ZAYN: I know what most people are thinking, how confident I sound, some might mistake it for cockiness, and they’d be asking what if PJ Black is my banana skin?
COREY GRAVES: He took the words right out of my mouth!
SAMI ZAYN: What is after picking up win after win in singles competition, after so much success, after a King of the Ring win, I lose to PJ. I guess the simple answer I that I’d be the new nearly-man in the company, that I couldn’t do it when it mattered the most, but for the remainder of the 364 days when the pressure is off, I’m going to win. But, I think it works the other way too. WHEN PJ loses then he’d be the undisputed nearly-man of the company, the man that blames the management for his own failures. The man that doesn’t want to succeed, the man that’s perfectly happy being below average. The man that can’t be bothered to get his head out of his ass and see that even the newest of guys are passing him by, and he’s happy to sit there, idle, watching it all unfold. The only reason PJ Black doesn’t matter is because of you PJ, the only person holding PJ down, is you and the only reason you’re still here is because of this mythical exciting in-ring style you never show.
Sami’s frustrations were now visible, annoyed by the fact that PJ Black was allowed to get by for so long as the Path to Glory Champion, and was borderline desperate to take it from him.
SAMI ZAYN: The fact is, everyone has been defeating PJ lately, so the value of that championship has decreased because of him. That’s my insurance policy right there, I don’t think I’d need it but let’s be honest, who’d actually turn that down? To get two bites at the cherry, it’s what I’ve earned, and it’s what I deserve and nobody in this company – including PJ Black – can tell me otherwise. You know something, when I joined this company, I heard great things about everyone. How Randy Orton was untouchable, how you’d need to book a face to face meeting with Wes Ikeda three months in advance. How John Cena was untouchable, and I even heard or assumed that you were going to be the one to spearhead this new generation of stars with your exciting style, even I was excited; I won’t lie.
Sami calmed himself down a little, walking to one of the corners to compose himself before staring at the titan-tron to speak again.
SAMI ZAYN: I thought you’d be the ticket for guys like me to reach the top, that you’d be the one to open new doors and break down barriers for guys like me. Instead, the night I defeated Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam and raised the championship in the air for the very first time, I realised that the only one that broke down those doors to create opportunities…was me. I’m the one that busted my ass off to get to the top, and it probably does eat you up inside that I managed to capture that title while you were still thinking you belonged at that stage, I went out there and lived it. Every single person in this arena and the guys and girls backstage will have the same answer when they’re asked the question, who leapfrogged who over the past two years? Based on that, these fans won’t hide who they want to hold their championship titles either. YOU can’t handle that sort of pressure, and God help us all if you somehow in another life somehow fluke your way to the top and become the World Champion…I’d have to seriously re-evaluate my options as a wrestler if I let YOU become the World Champion.
Some of the fans laughed while others cheered even louder as Sami stared into the camera for a brief moment.
COREY GRAVES: Oh man, I can’t wait for PJ Black to do that, maybe we’d hear less of this every single week.
SAMI ZAYN: The only mark you’ve left in this company since you stepped foot through those doors is that people are constantly confused at how or why you even became the champion in the first place. That’s the only time people even think or talk about PJ Black, how he flukes it time and time again to stay towards the top, because he’s too damn scared to take the plunge because YOU can’t stomach the fact that you’re in way over your head. Even I don’t understand how you got here because even I’m surprised when I head to the EBWF roster page and still see you as an active superstar, let alone as the Path to Glory Champion. You know you don’t deserve it, I know it, and these fans know it as well and tonight I prove why PJ Black was and is all talk. Why he’s a fraud of a champion and why the company made the huge mistake of ever trusting him with a championship title like this. Once you’re out PJ, you’re out of the picture. I’m going to personally make sure we don’t see a repetitive cycle like we do with The Miz every single month. Hell, even he has more heart than you to keep coming back, whereas you act like you don’t want to be here, and you don’t deserve to be. This ‘playing it cool’ act, how you’re too good for this and why this company needs you, it’s all bullshit. As talented as you should be, PJ can be replaced in a heartbeat, and they’d forget you were ever here.
It was clear Sami was close to finishing up, as he placed the microphone down next to him and proceeded to take off his Harrington Lonsdale jacket and placed it outside of the ring, before picking up the microphone yet again.
SAMI ZAYN: The way I see it is that we’ve done this way too often for the story to end in a different way. When I arrived, you beat me and I accept that. Since then, it’s all been me and tonight it ends with me standing over you as the champion. All I can see is a copied and pasted version of Justin Gabriel on broken, battered canvas where all you did was changed your name and grew your beard a little longer. There’s nothing impressive left inside of you, and I know you’re begging for someone to put you out of your misery and take this huge workload and pressure off of your shoulders because you’re not good enough to do it. I’m the man to do it, I’m the man to be the champion, and I’m the man that’s going to knock your head clean off of your shoulders.
Sami threw the microphone outside of the ring as the fans cheered yet again, with a determined Sami taking off his t-shirt and pumping himself up a little more as Christy Hemme got into the ring once more, ready to introduce the Kansas crowd to the defending champion with Sami’s eyes fixed on the stage.
