The WWE SummerSlam 2016 match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar is one that ended controversially due to elbow strikes from The Beast creating a technical knockout, but it ended up being a behind-the-scenes incident involving Chris Jericho that got fans talking in the aftermath.
At the time, it was reported that Jericho and Lesnar got into a physical altercation, and during an appearance on the “True Geordie Podcast,” the AEW star made it clear he would “stand up to him again” as he weighed in on what actually happened in Gorilla Position that day.
“He was basically just like butchering him with elbows to the head, and I didn’t know if it was planned or not and nobody would tell me,” he said. “Elbows to the side of the head can kill you. Your temple, if you get hit hard enough in the temple, you die … I was like, ‘If this is real, it’s bullsh*t. If it has been called, it’s still bullsh*t. He’s taking liberties and it pissed me off.’ I was in Gorilla and I was f*cking angry about it … And we got into a little bit of an issue.”
Despite the obvious size and strength advantage that Lesnar has over him, Jericho — who also had a legitimate fight with Goldberg — made it clear he was not bothered as he was prepared to “stand up for what [he believes] in to the death.”
The former AEW World Champion also revealed that Lesnar was “laughing … saying things that would probably get him canceled if I said them to you now, like homophobic terms that you shouldn’t be saying.” While he didn’t reveal the specifics on that, Jericho was prepared to go to the extremes to deal with the situation.
“I was like f*ck it, I’m going to bite his f*cking nose off. I see this big, giant, fat nose, and I am like … I’ll bite his f*cking nose off, see how tough he is then. He might kill me, but he’s going to walk around for the rest of his life with no f*cking nose.’ So that’s how it made me feel,” he said. “I didn’t care about the homophobic thing. I don’t give a sh*t, I wasn’t falling for [the insults]. This has gone to the next level now, this is f*cking kill or be killed.”
Ultimately, there was no need for any nose biting to take place as the situation was calmed down when it was explained to Jericho that the spot involving Lesnar and Orton was something that had been planned and agreed upon by both men.
“Triple H tried to break it up and we both told him to f*ck off, which was hilarious,” he recalled. “Then Vince got involved, and he got involved and basically broke it up.”
Even though the elbow strikes were arranged by everyone involved in the finish, legitimate strikes did bring a real risk of injury, and Jericho was right to be concerned as Orton ended up suffering a concussion that night.
