9. He Punched Shawn Michaels' Wife At SummerSlam 2008
WWE.comAny time you talk about the best feud in Jericho's career the name of Shawn Michaels should come up. While their rivalry in 2003 was very good, it's their 2008 story that really was one of the best feuds in the history of WWE. Jericho was incredible as a heel that was sick of Shawn Michaels. They reached a point where the feud got really personal as it looked like Michaels was going to retire due to an eye injury he suffered that was caused by Jericho. At the end of an intense promo, Michaels told Jericho to tell his kids that he (Jericho) will never be Michaels. Rebecca, Shawn's wife, was in the ring with him and wanted him to leave the ring. The big spot happened as Rebecca pulled Shawn's arm, he turned his back, Jericho wound up to punch, Shawn ducked and Jericho nailed Rebecca right in the face with a right handed punch that knocked her out. It was one of those moments that you couldn't believe as Michaels reacted to it in shock and Jericho showed no remorse for it. The replays showed it was a stiff right hand too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShJFB19ZKS0 When asked about how the punch looked a bit more stiff than he would have liked, here's how Jericho explained it in an interview with the
Baltimore Sun: "I mean, what could you say? It was one of those things where there's always the X factor that something could happen like that, and we all knew what the danger of it was. Obviously, Shawn and I felt terrible. Rebecca did not. She loved it. She thought it was awesome. And the fact that she didn't end up with any permanent damage - no broken teeth, a fat lip for a couple weeks - it's probably the best thing that could have happened. That really kick-started the angle and took it to a different place. Obviously, I felt so bad about it, but when all was said and done, it actually worked out for the best." The reason WWE wants to forget it is because they really don't want to promote man on woman violence in today's PG environment. The company was PG in 2008 too, but they're even stricter now. A man punching a woman, even if it's made to look accidental, is a major no-no in WWE today.