[Concrete TG]

incident description from a fan, courtesy of pwinsider.com:

"This afternoon after the WWE house show in Victoria, my girlfriend and I went to see the wrestlers leave the arena (this was my girlfriend's first WWE event and she wanted to see them leave). The following is exactly what happened right in front of me and about another 50 wrestling fans who happened to be there are well:

Chris Jericho exited the building, and walked over to his white rental vehicle. The crowd watching him leave was heckling him, but he was ignoring it. He gets in his vehicle and drives out of the arena parking lot, right past the crowd of us. As Jericho stops at a stop sign, a fan runs into the street and starts banging on his rental vehicle. At this point about 50 people rush into the middle of the intersection, blocking traffic in several directions, with no police and very inadequate and incompetent security (no WWE security guards period). My girlfriend and I were literally in the very front of the crowd, and this all went down literally five feet away from us.

Chris Jericho opens the door to his vehicle in the middle of the road, and the fan shuts the door back on him. Jericho then gets out of the vehicle completely, and punches the fan in the face! This prompts another fan to jump in (he was friends with the first) and attack Jericho, and Jericho scuffles with the second guy. At this point, a woman who knows the second guy who attacked Jericho starts to jump in and get in Jericho's face (because he was fighting her friend).

This is where the Save on Foods Rent-A-Security Guards stopped standing around watching this happen (I swear they thought they were watching a wrestling angle or something), and stepped in to separate Jericho and the woman, who was shoving him. Looking at Jericho's face he was obviously ready to explode and was restraining himself...but then the sh**storm happened...

He spit in the girl's face, and curses at her. The woman then spit in Jericho's face. Jericho then started cursing out the woman some more, and was getting ready to go back into his vehicle (as all of this is still happening in the middle of the road). While he was turning to go into his vehicle, one of the guys he was fighting shoved Jericho against his car. Another guy then shoved Jericho, and that time he bumped his head on the top of his vehicle. This was where Jericho seriously snapped.

After bumping his head, Jericho went into a sh**storm, throwing and swinging at everybody around him. He knocked one guy to the ground, told another fan that he was going to "f**king kill you". The woman who got spit on was still yelling at Jericho, so he pie faced her away from him (because the arena security couldn't keep them separated). As soon as he put his hands on the woman, ANOTHER fan jumps in and starts swinging at Jericho. Jericho grabs the guy and starts throwing him to the ground, and at this point I have to yank my girlfriend out of the way and into some other people because Jericho had literally thrown himself and the other guy into our direction and we would of been knocked down by the scuffle.

The arena security try again at this point to regain order, and two of them grab Jericho and start yelling at him to calm down, to which Jericho responds by taking a swing at one of the security guards and yelling at them to "do your f***ing job and get the f***ing police here". Then he shoves the second guard to the ground and tells him to "stay the f** off me".

Well, as that happens, the chick lunges at Jericho AGAIN, and this time Jericho actually punches the woman in the face, and shoves her to the ground. This stunned everyone, and the girl's friends ended up jumping in trying to fight Jericho, to which he fought all of them off, then storms into his vehicle swearing and speeds off, running through a stop sign in the process.

This whole thing happened over the span of about 5 minutes (of the street being blocked by this ordeal), and the woman ended up calling the cops on Jericho. They arrived 5 minutes after Jericho left, complete with a Paddy Wagon. The WWE's head of security did not see the incident, so he was there trying to figure out what happened along with the cops at the same time while yapping on his cell phone, and the woman is pressing charges against Jericho. As crazy and unbelievable this sounds, it can all be backed up with whatever police report was filed on the scene this afternoon.

I hope this made sense, as a lot of stuff happened. If you have any questions or need clarification, just ask. This was taped by several people with cell phone cameras, but there were only 50 people down there so I hope the video makes it way to the internet. Regardless, this went down as one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life. "

Good heel + light house show security + stupid fan.

If anyone goes to jail, it better be those fans.

ETA: Crap, wrong area. Mods, please move to the wrestling threads.

[Lucky]

Sure sounds like Jericho should be in a cell with the fans. And quite frankly I'll end up having very little sympathy for a full grown man (an athlete non the less) who spits at and punches women. Even if the women started it (which in that story she didn't, at least not physically).

[Habs]

And WWE is trying to be more PGish...... I call Roïd rage. Put A-Rod under surveillance, he might be the next one to be affected.

[Lucky]

I don't know why in the world I'm surprised that the internet wrestling fans are about 99% "Bitch deserved it, go Jericho!"

[The Jewish Cunthead]

After watching the 2nd youtube vid, Jericho's ass better be in the slammer with everyone else. It's one thing to mouth off to the fans in character but when he starts throwing with them, he needs to be just as accountable, maybe even more.

[Beer Baron]

Ok, it's time I weight in on this. I just read this and saw most of the videos. I would say that it is completely the fans's fault for starting the whole fight. They obviously can't determine the difference between real life and preformance. It would be like going up to Ian McDiarmid(who played Emperor Palpatine in all the Star Wars) and throwing down cause he killed all the Jedi. I am amazed when I see fans who are so blinded by a performance and don't understand that it's just a character being played.(With that being said, obviously Jericho is doing a great job with his heel persona to elicit such a response from fans in public) Second, Jericho should not have escalated it further with spitting in the woman's face. He needed to get in his car and lock the door, turn on the music, and let security do their job. Third, security should all be fired because they did not do their job properly. They should have created a perimeter between Jericho and all of the fans, regardless of who was fighting. Detain the group that was fighting, and get the rest of the people to leave. Call in police, and have them sort this out. It was the middle of the day, so I would say that the fans were probably not intoxicated, but just ignorant, and wanted to start a fight.

This is coming from someone in the entertainment industry, and who grew up in Los Angeles. I am never used to seeing movie stars, sports stars, etc, but I treat them with respect as colleages and real people. I had lunch at this mexican food place in Santa Monica yesterday and Luke Wilson sat down at the table behind me. That didn't make me want to run up and start yelling that he did this and that in a movie. If I were judge, I'd reprimand both the fans and Jericho. Fans for being idiots starting the whole thing, and Jericho for not doing what he's supposed to do, and just walk away.

[Lucky]

Agreed.

There seems to be this retarded logic wrestling fans are reacting to this with. Because the fan(s) were clearly wrong and the security clearly failed at their job somehow that means Jericho had the "right" to assault them. There are no victims in that story/those videos. There's just 3 sets of wrong people.

[Beer Baron]

I agree. Let's say there's a riot in the streets, which leads to people looting store fronts. That is still a crime. That doesn't mean just because there's a riot, that all rules are out the window. What state did this happen in?

[Habs]

OK, I got to ask, Lucky, what the heel is your av? Is it the total package, but not the Lex Luger kind?

[AngryDan]

Feb 8, 2009 14:59:54 GMT -5 Beer Baron said:

What state did this happen in?

British Columbia.

The entire thing could have been avoided had Jericho just not opened his car door. I understand him losing his shit because he kept getting attacked, and every time he tried to leave he was lunged at, but it could have all been avoided had he just kept driving. I just don't understand what was going through his mind when he decided to open his door. What did he think would happen?

[Pun]

Fucking Canadians!

[Byrntrigan]

Totally. Ban Dave. Ban HIM~!

[columbo]

There's a war goin on outside, no man is safe from
You could run but you can't hide forever
from these, streets, that we done took
You walkin witcha head down scared to look
You shook, cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks
They never around when the beef cooks in my part of town
It's similar to Vietnam
Now we all grown up and old, and beyond the cop's control
They better have the riot gear ready
Tryin to bag me and get rocked steady
by the mac one-double, I touch you
and leave you with not much to go home wit
My skin is thick, cause I be up in the mix of action
if I'm not at home, puffin lye relaxin
New York got a nigga depressed
So I wear a slug-proof underneath my Guess
God bless my soul, before I put my foot down and begin to stroll
And to the drama I built, and all unfinished beef
You will soon be killed, put us together
It's like mixin vodka and milk
I'm goin out blastin, takin my enemies with me
and if not, they scarred, so they will never forget me
Lord forgive me the Hennesey got me not knowin how to act
I'm fallin and I can't turn back
or maybe it's the words from my man Killa Black
that I can't say so it's left a untold fact, until my death
My goal's to stay alive
Survival of the fit only the strong survive

[Beer Baron]

If you notice, even throughout the entire fight, Jericho still kept his bad ass sunglasses on his face. Now that's a heel!

[Tommy]

work

[Mikey]

We need more guys keeping kayfabe nowadays. He shoulda kicked all their asses and cleared the whole place out like Swayze at the Double Deuce.

[DevSop]

I see nothing wrong with what Jericho did. Now if only he had this charisma inside the ring again.

[Fire-Babe]

Feb 8, 2009 15:48:55 GMT -5 AngryDan said:

The entire thing could have been avoided had Jericho just not opened his car door. I understand him losing his shit because he kept getting attacked, and every time he tried to leave he was lunged at, but it could have all been avoided had he just kept driving.

Yes. Because "Chris Jericho runs over fans" is that much better?

[punk/core]

If he'd just crept the car ever-so-slowly and honked his horn a lot, he could have broken through the crowd and driven away.

[Byrntrigan]

I can understand "heat of the moment", but jericho has been around a LOONG time. Why didn't he call the cops when the fans stopped his car?

Why didn't he call WWE security?

For those of you who have waited around the back, do the wrestlers usually come out with security, or do they disembark from a cordoned off area that no one has access to so they can get out?

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets arrested for this as Lucky and others have said, he should have known better.

Assclown.

[Ryan]

If he hadn't hit a woman, I'd personally be fine with it. That kind of crap looks to be really annoying, especially if all you're doing is minding your own business like he was.

But shit, he hit a woman. That's messed up.

[Beer Baron]

Feb 8, 2009 20:40:59 GMT -5 Byrntrigan said:

I can understand "heat of the moment", but jericho has been around a LOONG time. Why didn't he call the cops when the fans stopped his car?

Why didn't he call WWE security?

For those of you who have waited around the back, do the wrestlers usually come out with security, or do they disembark from a cordoned off area that no one has access to so they can get out?

You're right, he has been around a long time. I would almost expect something like this to happen with Miz or Morrison. Less Miz cause I'm sure he's felt the wrath of people's hatred of the Real World since he's been out of that. I would expect someone young, or even Randy Orton. Even though the chick probably had it coming to her. She reminds me of one of those chicks who starts a fight at a party with a dude, knowing that she'll get away with it, but then when some dude reels back and wails on her, she's the first one to play the "Chick Card." I know that kind of female, there's no winning with her.

[Tommy]

Feb 8, 2009 20:40:59 GMT -5 Byrntrigan said:

Why didn't he call the cops when the fans stopped his car?

Why didn't he call WWE security?

For those of you who have waited around the back, do the wrestlers usually come out with security, or do they disembark from a cordoned off area that no one has access to so they can get out?

All of this.

Work.

[punk/core]

I think we're all ignoring the obvious answer-- he was temporarily possessed by the enraged soul of Chris Benoit.

[Riot Act]

Alright, I've got to (sort of) come to defense of the security guards here. Yes, they could have handled the situation better, but their hands are tied as far as what they can legally do to restrain the crowd.

I work as a bouncer, which albeit is different than this, but it is the same principle. We have so many guys go to court for laying a hand on a customer, even if it's justified and in self-defense, that we have to be VERY careful what we do. It's no differnet here. It's bullshit and it often prevents us from doing our job, but when you're trying to back an unruly mob of 75 people away from an SUV in the middle of a street when there are innocent bystanders around, you'd better be fucking careful what you do.

So, what could they have done better? Well, for starters it would have helped if there were more than 3 or 4 of them. Form a perimiter around Jericho and be much more hands on with the fans. Push them back, do what you have to do. Just be careful about the shoves (I got in shit for a shove once myself). Then ask Jericho to get back in the car get the fuck out of there. Simple.