The live crowd booed the national anthem of the United States at WWE Elimination Chamber.
At WWE Elimination Chamber in Toronto, Elizabeth Irving opened the show by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The fans in attendance loudly booed her throughout the song.
The crowd then cheered when Irving sang “O Canada”, the national anthem of Canada.
Pat McAfee then commented on the situation on commentary by saying that it “kinda sucked” that WWE Elimination Chamber was being held in “the terrible country of Canada that booed our National Anthem.”
Sami Zayn: Today’s WWE Is Meant To Be An Escape From The Political Climate
Sami Zayn was recently asked about the political tension between the United States and Canada and how it would affect WWE Elimination Chamber during a media call leading up to the show. He stated that the political climate was not reflected in the WWE product anymore.
“I like to talk about, you know, wrestling as sort of a reflective art form in the world. In regards to history and sociology, and how it’s kind of mirrored societies at the time. Having said that, wrestling’s always had sort of a political representation of the Zeitgeist of the time, right? So, you know, in the ’90s, during the Persian Gulf War, we had Sergeant Slaughter with the Iraq stuff. Even prior to that, in the ’50s, we had Nazi villains and stuff like that. Japanese, whoever the villains were in the political climate, were reflected in the world of pro wrestling.” Sami Zayn said.
“Now, I think in a strange way, we’re doing a sort of weird anti-reflection reflection. Wherein we just simply don’t touch politics anymore. As a company, nothing about the political climate is reflected in the product. I think, in some ways, that’s also a reflection of the society we currently live in and the sensitivity to these things.”
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