10 Biggest Wrestling Controversies Of 2016

5. The Ending Of SummerSlam 2016

The controversy surrounding Brock Lesnar's concussion-inducing SummerSlam onslaught was such that it entrained Chris Jericho in its wake. Incensed, he confronted Lesnar when he returned to the Gorilla Position, only to be hilariously reprimanded by Vince McMahon for being a "mark".

That insult wasn't really applicable. Jericho had not been worked into believing what he'd seen was real - he had expressed his disgust that Lesnar was permitted to use real violence at Randy Orton's expense. It wasn't entirely new to wrestling - Shawn Michaels used a similar MMA-influenced TKO finish to defeat Jericho himself at Unforgiven 2008 - but Lesnar's elbows were so brutal that it gathered a storm, nonetheless.

Jericho had a valid point. That Unforgiven match was similarly unsettling, but significantly more exciting. And, he wasn't laid out for three weeks afterwards. His feud with Michaels reached even loftier heights after the fact. Orton, meanwhile, lost any momentum the Lesnar match might have afforded him. There was no battling post-match promo. He was shelved for a month.

WWE is a company built on paradox. They've banned the blade, because it appears too violent - and yet, real violence is somehow okay.