WWE Suspends Chris Jericho Indefinitely For Desecrating Brazil Flag

WWE have suspended Chris Jericho indefinitely following an incident at a WWE live event in Sao Paulo, Brazil last night (May 24th). WWE.com confirmed the suspension today;

Chris Jericho as 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.

PWInsider.com reports that Jericho was suspended for kicking a Brazilian flag during a match against WWE Champion CM Punk. Desecrating the national flag in Brazil is a crime punishable by incarceration. What is said to have happened is that Jericho had cut a heel promo on Punk before insulting Brazil on the mic. At that point a fan at the event tossed a Brazilian flag to Punk and he raised it up in the air to gain a big pop from the crowd. Y2J then took the same flag and kicked it. You can see a video of him kicking the flag below; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RikjeeDaMxI&feature=player_embedded Punk vs Jericho then started their match before a new referee came down and interrupted, halting the match. Jericho was then forced by officials to take to the microphone and apologise for his actions and disrespecting the flag. The match continued and Punk won and then celebrated with the flag post-match, during which Jericho was being hurried to the back. Jericho was very close to being arrested for the incident as authorities were present at the event and were clearly unhappy with his actions. Y2J was almost taken into custody but cooler heads eventually prevailed and he was not charged by police and hurried out of the country. TMZ later updated on the story saying that police authorities had ordered the match to be stopped and for Jericho to apologise. They told him he would be sent to jail for his crime if he did not apologise immediately. It is being stressed that the flag incident was not approved by the WWE or known to them beforehand. The incident was a huge embarrassment to the WWE as they were making their debut in Brazil last night in front of 5,000 or 6,000 fans. Jericho has since been replaced by Daniel Bryan in WWE Title matches against CM Punk for the WWE's upcoming Spain tour in June. Jericho is quoted on WWE.com as saying;

"I made a bad judgment call in the course of entertaining fans in Brazil. I apologized to the people in the crowd for showing disrespect. It was a bad move. I did it with fans€™ entertainment in mind and I€™ll accept the consequences for that."