Jericho "suspended indefinitely"

CMpunked

http://www.wwe.com/inside/jericho-brazil

Chris Jericho has been suspended indefinitely due to an irresponsible act of denigrating the Brazilian flag at a WWE live event in São Paulo on May 24. WWE has apologized to the citizens and the government of Brazil for this incident.

:rolleyes:

Further reading:

At a WWE Live Event in at São Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday evening, Chris Jericho reportedly denigrated the Brazilian flag during a match against WWE Champion CM Punk. Suspended indefinitely, Jericho responded to the incident in his own words.

“I made a bad judgment call in the course of entertaining [WWE] fans in Brazil,” Jericho told WWE.com. “I apologized to the people in the crowd for showing disrespect.”

During Jericho’s match with the WWE Champion at São Paulo’s Ginásio do Ibirapuera, the flag found its way into the ring, where Jericho crumpled it up and then kicked it.

Local law enforcement stopped the bout and gave Jericho the opportunity to apologize to those in attendance or face incarceration. The former World Champion expressed his regret to the crowd and the WWE Live Event continued.

Due to his actions, WWE officials suspended Jericho indefinitely.

“It was a bad move,” Jericho said. “I did it with [our] fans’ entertainment in mind and I’ll accept the consequences for that.”

MitchKoobski

They'll either un-suspend him the second they back to d'shtates, or they'll leave it off so he can go tour with Fozzy. Could end up being a better idea for time off than they had originally.

Penn

MitchKoobski wrote: »

They'll either un-suspend him the second they back to d'shtates, or they'll leave it off so he can go tour with Fozzy. Could end up being a better idea for time off than they had originally.

Well, if Orton can no longer punt people out of action, I'd say they were probably struggling to come up with a way of writing him out.

CMpunked

Imagine if this rule was in force when JBL started elbowdropping the irish flag and saying what he did at summerbash a few years back?! :pac:

Charlie Haughy

Cant tell if its kayfabe or legit. But its all very convenient for Jericho to get time off to leave to tour with Fozzy.

He did the classic heel move of stomping and walking on the flag, but apparently thats a crime in brazil and actually illegal unlike most other countries, but im sure WWE would know this before hand, as they've been to brazil many times before right?

Its probably just a clever way of writing him out of his storyline, whatever it is now.

Fenian Army

CMpunked wrote: »

Imagine if this rule was in force when JBL started elbowdropping the irish flag and saying what he did at summerbash a few years back?! :pac:

Ha, dont fans get that its just an act?

In real life JBL loves Ireland, im sure Jericho likes Brazil, some people take it too seriously...

HBK picked his nose with the Canadian flag years back too

Charlie Haughy

Fenian Army wrote: »

HBK picked his nose with the Canadian flag years back too

and humped the flag.

Captain Morgan Freeman

CMpunked wrote: »

Imagine if this rule was in force when JBL started elbowdropping the irish flag and saying what he did at summerbash a few years back?!

He's done much worse then that! JBL nearly got put in prison for doing this at a house show in Germany!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0j8WIMT6o0

I reckon it's legit rather then kayfabe seeing as WWE also had to apologise to the goverment. He was going to take time off anyway for the fozzy tour so WWE saves face and Jericho doesn't get that bad of a punishment.

DM_7

This is WWE's first ever visit to Brazil.

no way would they plan an act that could offend a huge population. Just not worth the grief and bad press.

RobbingBandit

I remember JBL in the Point calling all of us there "a bunch of tea drinking shirt lifters."

Still to this day I don't know wtf a shirt lifter is.

rovert

RobbingBandit wrote: »

I remember JBL in the Point calling all of us there "a bunch of tea drinking shirt lifters."

Still to this day I don't know wtf a shirt lifter is.

Where are you from? In Dublin and in my secondary school people used that to slag people all the time as a gay slur much like pillow biter.

RobbingBandit

I am from Dublin alright, never heard it before that day or since.

Fenian Army

Captain Morgan Freeman wrote: »

JBL's Goose Stepping

I don't know what happened with Chris Jericho in Brazil so I can't comment. He's a very good longtime friend and I always wish him the best.

My comments below are only about my own history and nothing to do with Chris, I just want to answer again what happened in Germany with several years perspective.

As far as a lot of folks bringing up the incident of me in Germany I understand and I have gone over this many times. 'Back in the day' wrestlers flipped off crowds, spit at them got into fights with them, etc-was a different era. Me doing a goose step years ago, in Germany to make the fans mad was something everyone did (in fact so much that it had quit getting heat years before), was it right-no, it was just cheap heat from a different era same as yelling crude names at crowd. The night I did it that became famous there were several other guys who had done it, I had been on tours and I lived in Germany for two years and had seen when every match would do it. It had become a real cheap heat getter-that no longer worked because everyone was doing it. Fritz Von Erich and Barron Von Ratszche had made a living off of it-but like trying to make a living off of Vietnam or Civil War references it's time had passed.

It's been pointed out that I wasn't even the only guy in the match that night who had done it. It got zero heat that night, wasn't even worth doing. Again, right or wrong-everyone did it-and it's time had passed and it was time to be smarter about getting heat just like flipping off the crowd's time had passed as well.

Problem came when a reporter (from my understanding) who had a vendetta against Vince sent an email to the network I had just signed a deal with-they didn't want any controversy and fired me. Best thing that ever happened to my wrestling career as I got tons of media and real heat off of it-in the corporate world of today it would be all negative and I would probably be suspended or fired-and rightfully so, it wasn't that long ago but was a different era. Vince explained to the network that it was just part of a fictional show like Sgt Shultz in Hogan's Heroes, but the folks there at the time didn't get it.

This event helped make the JBL character as it got me so much main stream media, which also had a negative side as some never got that it was part of a fictional show.

There were Internet reports that I was being deported and charged, all ridiculous charges. That was never brought up. It was no big deal in Germany as it happened every wrestling match and no one there complained-it was so common in German wrestling that no one there even noticed. I let those charges go unanswered as it was getting me massive heat. I even suggested a shirt "You got fired" but WWE felt like it would die quickly and by the time shirt came out no one would care, which was true.

I gave Eddie's mom a heart attack on Mother's Day and tried to run over Cena with a car-personally I think that was worse, ha, but somehow folks realize that's a work but some things aren't-nature of the beast.

It still gets brought up every once in a while, good to be remembered:)


From JBLs facebook. He is worth "liking" by the way, only wrestler I do on facebook. He seems a genuinely sound guy.

DEFTLEFTHAND

This is the kinda crap that happens when your a public company. Any hint of a PR faux pas and you have to row back faster than a lifeboat from the Titanic.

JP Liz V1

TMZ

Cops gave Jericho an option -- apologize to the arena ... or go to jail. Chris chose the former ... grabbing the mic and telling the crowd he immediately regretted his actions. Cops allowed the event to continue.
Sources connected to the WWE tell TMZ ... the flag stunt was NOT planned or approved by WWE officials

starviewadams

Jericho proves his idiocy once again!

At least he can get his over-rated sour puss of our screens and go tour with his crappy little band now though I spose.

rovert

Charlie Haughy

did he run into the turnbuckle at the end of the video...?

jaykhunter

rovert if u find any others (i really wanna see the cops come in and stop the match) please post!

Found this one (better Q of Jericho with the flag and cuts a heel promo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0iJLWVA_3o

CMpunked

So its really a thing? :eek:

rovert

jaykhunter wrote: »

rovert if u find any others (i really wanna see the cops come in and stop the match) please post!

Just saw this. I think WWE are taking them down too or at least trying to.

jaykhunter

Watch Shawn's entrance - and this was FINE in 97

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwgHosHZklM

Brazil need to get the stick out of their ass. They chastised the Simpsons for their depiction as well....

rovert

Given it is Friday:

CMpunked

Jericho should have been all like

Hashtag_HEEL

Me: *Buys Tickets For Raw. Sees Line Up/Ads including Y2J And Get Excited* "OOHHH Can't wait to see Jericho. Tickets Were definitely worth getting"
*Goes on Boards*

Jericho "Suspended indefinitely"

My Reaction

DEFTLEFTHAND

That apology was pathetic... 'I love Brazil'... puke! he shouldn't have had to do it. This is bloody wrestling for gods sake. Maybe if Brazil weren't so uber sensitive on such trivial matters they'd get their bloody country sorted, how this crowd expect to host a World Cup and Olympics in the next 4 years with the state their nations is in is beyond me.

GTR63

Yeah Brazil don't deserve the world cup now.

Stereomaniac

30 days according to WWE.

Saveus.222

Hashtag_HEEL wrote: »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

+1


We can be comforted by the fact that he was going away very shortly to tour with Fozzy anyway.
He'll be back at the end of next month.

Ridley

So, if my Googling is correct, he would have got a fine?

He should have slapped it in the Walls of Jericho and been dragged away.

Darkest Horse

What a storm in a teacup. If someone was to deliberately disrespect the flag outside the context of an entertainment show I could see the problem. It must be something in the water down that way. When the Ireland rugby team toured Argentina in the 80s, Willie Anderson was jailed for a period of time for taking an Argentine flag from a pole. Funnily enough, also in relation to rugby, I was at a house show in 2006 where JBL had apparently seen the Irish team beat South Africa that weekend and he called the sport "gay" and said some controversial things about Northern Ireland. Nobody took any of this seriously and he had the crowd in hysterics. If anything it showed that he had some cultural awareness unlike those idiots Cryme Tyme at a London taping: "Those euros, euros, yeah, yeah". JBL seems a well traveled educated guy and if you read Jericho's books you get the same impression.

To underline the whole issue, I recently had a call from a yank friend of mine who is working with JBL in running an after school rugby programme for underprivileged kids.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2011/11/25/19020911.html

I'm sure Chris Jericho will be appreciating the beauty of Brazilian culture, women and football on his enforced break.