Chris Jericho Accuses Brock Lesnar Of Using Homophobic Language In Backstage Spat

Brock Lesnar's bludgeoning of Randy Orton at WWE SummerSlam 2016 led to a backstage confrontation between current Undisputed WWE Universal Championship contender Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho, who hadn't been told that the shoot elbow strikes Lesnar had used to bust Orton open for the match's finish were planned.

Jericho has spoken about the incident several times in the past, though he has now claimed, for the first time, that Lesnar used homophobic language when the two went face to face.

Speaking on the True Geordie Podcast, Jericho explained the circumstances leading to him standing up to Brock. As far as he knew, Brock was taking liberties with Orton, with the former AEW World Champion claiming he was willing to "fight to the death" for what he believes (h/t Inside the Ropes):-

"He was doing a match with Randy Orton and he was basically butchering him with elbows to the head. I didn’t know if it was planned or not, no one would tell me. Wrestling is a hard-hitting sport, but elbows to the side of the head can kill you. When he was hitting him with the elbows, if this is real then it is bullsh*t, but if it is called, it is still bullsh*t because he is taking liberties and it is p*ssing me off. I was in Gorilla and I was angry about it, he came back and saw me and saw I was angry about it and wanted to challenge me. We got into a bit of an issue, I was like f*ck this guy I don’t know how big he is I will take him on. I will fight to the death and stand up for what I believe in to the death.”

Continuing, Jericho revealed that "things that would get him cancelled" were coming out of Brock's mouth:-

“I was nose to nose with the guy and he is there laughing and saying things that would get him cancelled, homophobic things. I was like I am going to bite his f*cking nose off. I see this big fat nose in front of me, and if he takes a swing at me, I’m not saying this as a tough guy, I am literally going to bite his f*cking nose off and see how tough he is.”

Reaffirming that he would have bitten Lesnar's nose off in a "kill or be killed" situation, Jericho then ran through Triple H and Vince McMahon diffusing the situation:-

“He might kill me, but he will walk around for the rest of his life with no nose. I don’t care about the homophobic thing, I wasn’t falling for it. This has gone to the next level now, this has f*cking become kill or be killed. I’m going to bite your f*cking nose off. Triple H tried to break it up and we both told him to f*ck off which was hilarious. Then Vince got involved and basically broke it up and told me that he had told Brock to do that. No one else would say anything before that, but that was all down to Vince and Randy and Brock and whatever. But when it got down to the confrontation, it was real. Had it gone to the next step, I would have, he might have broke my face, but I will bite his nose off.”

Although Jericho's WWE appearances grew increasingly sporadic towards the end of his run with the market leaders, he and Brock (a part-timer since returning in 2012) effectively shared a roster until July 2017, when Chris departed the company.

Lesnar remains a focused star on the WWE roster to date and will challenge for Roman Reigns' Undisputed strap at SummerSlam 2022 (30 July).