Powell Editorials Who's to blame for Chris Jericho's altercation with fans following Saturday's WWE house show? By Jason Powell Feb 8, 2009 - 12:12 PM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing Chris Jericho had a physical altercation with multiple fans and security guards following Saturday's WWE house show in Victoria, B.C. Eyewitness Matt Patterson's recap of the events are listed below in italics, followed by my commentary below. (Jericho) got in his vehicle and drove out of the arena parking lot, right past the crowd of us. As Jericho stopped at a stop sign, a fan ran into the street and started banging on his rental vehicle. At this point about 50 people rushed 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). Idiot fan. Security should have stepped in and restrained this moron, but based on the video footage it's hard to tell whether they had time to do so. Chris Jericho opened the door to his vehicle in the middle of the road, and the fan shut the door back on him. Jericho then got out of the vehicle completely, and punched the fan in the face! Idiot fan strikes again followed by a horrible decision by Jericho. He never should have left his vehicle. A wrestler should never get out of the car in that situation. Furthermore, Jericho should have kept his cool and not punched the fan unless it was strictly in self defense. He let his temper get the best of him. Sure, the fan acted like an idiot and there were others who were yelling profanities, but wrestlers deal with idiots and profanities on a daily basis. This prompted another fan to jump in (he was friends with the first) and attack Jericho, who scuffled with the second guy. At this point, a woman who knew the second guy who attacked Jericho, started to jump in and get in Jericho's face (because he was fighting her friend). More idiocy from the fans, although I can't stress enough that Jericho made a mistake by getting out of the car. (Security) 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 shit storm happened... He spat in the girl's face, and called her a 'f---ing bitch.' The woman spat in Jericho's face. Jericho 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. Stupid behavior all around. According to Matt's version of the story, the woman shoved Jericho first, he spat in retaliation, and things only got worse from there. TMZ contacted Matt this morning to get his version of the story, yet the headline they used makes it seem as if Jericho punched the fan because he was spat on. [After Jericho bickered and fought with security] the chick lunged at Jericho again, and this time Jericho actually punched the woman in the face, and shoved her to the ground. This stunned everyone, and the girl's friends ended up jumping in trying to fight Jericho... He fought all of them off, then stormed into his vehicle swearing and sped off, running through a stop sign in the process. Jericho should have climbed back inside his vehicle and left long before this happened. He had a staredown with the female fan. Again, he let his temper get the best of him. There's no denying he was provoked. The female fan never should have shoved him, nor should he have responded by spitting on her. The video shows that he had a moment to collect his thoughts. The female fan shoved him and he glared at her, gave her a head fake, and then turned to get back inside his vehicle. The female fan, who should have been restrained by security by this point, shoved Jericho again. He turned around and threw a punch that connected with the female fan. I realize it happened fast and that he had his back to the woman before he threw the punch, but he also had to know there was a good possibility it was the same woman shoving him when he turned around and threw the punch. The self defense excuse only goes so far. It's not like this was Gina Carano shoving him, and it looked to me like he was throwing the punch out of anger more than concern for his personal safety. The first fan who caused the incident should be arrested. The security team won't be winning any awards for the way they handled the incident, although I must say that they showed restraint in not retaliating when Jericho was taking shots at them. The woman who shoved Jericho repeatedly also shares in the blame. However, I don't subscribe to the "stupid bitch had it coming" comments that I've read today. You don't hit women. It's that simple. Only Jericho knows whether he was swinging at the woman intentionally. Either way, he made a big mistake that could come back to haunt him legally, and could lead to negative publicity for WWE. Some people can't wait to tear down celebrities when they make mistakes. Others come rushing to their and act as if their heroes can do no wrong. I don't see how anyone who objectively views the footage and reads the eyewitness account can say Jericho did nothing wrong. I'm not saying he should be crucified for his actions, but he clearly could have handled the situation better. Finally, I want to stress that while Matt has provided a very lengthy account of what took place, it is still only one person's perspective. The video clips on Youtube and on TMZ.com do not capture the entire incident, so it's possible that Matt or the cameras missed something during the melee that could change my take on the incident. HELP SUPPORT DOT NET! BECOME A MEMBER AT OUR CHARTER RATE OF JUST $5 A MONTH - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO SHOWS, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AD-FREE MAIN LISTING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO) GOT AN IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH? THEN BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD OUR NEW FREE iPhone APP: (click here!) (or SEARCH "pro wrestling" in iTunes App Store) FOR MORE BREAKING WWE & TNA NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE PWTORCH.COM (click here!) FOR MORE MMA & UFC NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE MMATORCH.COM (click here!) CLICK TO RETURN TO DOT NET MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY Powell Editorials Latest Twelve Articles Powell's TNA Impact Hitlist: Dixie Carter's speech to the talent crew, hype for Hulk Hogan, the build for A.J. Styles vs. Daniels vs. Samoa Joe, Team 3D vs. Matt Morgan and Hernandez, Tara vs. Hamada WWE Raw Hitlist: Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne host Raw, Chris Jericho vs. John Cena vs. Big Show, Sheamus destroys Jamie Noble, The Miz vs. Evan Bourne, vintage Michael Cole Powell's TNA Impact Hitlist: Hulk Hogan footage, Desmond Wolfe vs. Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe has a brain, Eric Young renames the toy belt, Matt Morgan vs. Rhino, World Elite get new warmup gear, Team 3D vs. Motor City Machine Guns WWE Raw Hitlist: John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels announced for Survivor Series, Kofi Kingston shines, John Cena makes Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes look like losers, Hornswoggle can't read WWE Bragging Rights Hitlist: John Cena vs. Randy Orton in an Iron Man match, Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Batista vs. C.M. Punk four-way, Raw vs. Smackdown tag match, The Miz vs. John Morrison Powell's TNA Bound For Glory Hitlist: A.J. Styles vs. Sting for the TNA Title, Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan, Ultimate X match, Mick Foley vs. Abyss, Bobby Lashley vs. Samoa Joe, ODB vs. Tara vs. Awesome Kong