2. He Was Suspended For Brazilian Flag Incident
WWE.comA big part of the reason Jericho is so beloved by wrestling fans is that he is fantastic at being either a jerk heel or an energetic face. The best wrestlers ever are usually the guys that can be great in both roles. Jericho is definitely one of those guys. Two years ago Jericho was playing the role of a heel in Brazil when he took things a bit too far, at least in the eyes of Brazilian authorities. WWE had to release this statement.
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.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0iJLWVA_3o When watching the video, Jericho can be seen spotting a Brazilian flag. He picked it up in the ring, held it up and threw it down on the mat. Then he kicked it. That infuriated the fans in attendance and led to the local authorities being involved as well. To Jericho it was just part of the show, but denigrating a flag was a serious problem. The story made worldwide press and that's not a good thing when it's negative like this. Jericho talked about it at a one man show recently, as reported by
WrestlingInc. Here's a synopsis of what he said: Jericho thought he was going to get thrown into jail. He was escorted out of the arena by a police escort to the airport. Vince McMahon told Jericho he had cost them a decent market in Brazil. He said that Vince suspended him for 30 days and fined him high 5 figures, to which Chris told Vince he would not be coming back. Triple H called him to explain and Jericho hung up on him. It ended up all getting worked out when Vince dropped the fine to $10,000. To this day, Jericho said that he hasn't paid it. It's pretty funny that he hasn't paid the fine, but what's $10,000 to Vince McMahon really? He probably doesn't even remember it. When Jericho returned to Raw on the June 25, 2012 edition of the show, announcer Michael Cole explained Jericho's absence as time away due to being on tour with is band Fozzy. He actually did have show with them, but that's not why he was off Raw. They didn't want to mention the suspension on TV because it had nothing to do with their storylines. They did mention it on WWE.com with Jericho issuing an apology for what happened.