5 Times Vince McMahon was forced to suspend a top star in WWE
Since the mid-2000s, WWE has been especially strict about violations of the Wellness Policy. Over the years, this has seen a number of WWE Superstars get suspended for Wellness Policy violations including some top stars, sometimes at the most inopportune moments. Some WWE Superstars' pushes were left completely unaffected while others like Rob Van Dam, who isn't on this list had his push completely killed because of the suspension.
Superstars can also get suspended for a number of reasons other than Wellness Policy violations like what happened to Titus O'Neil when he pulled Vince McMahon back after Daniel Bryan's retirement on WWE RAW.
Let's take a look at incidents when Vince McMahon was forced to suspend some of his top stars.
#5 Chris Jericho - 2012
The incident that led to Chris Jericho's suspension is almost legendary at this point.
The year was 2012 and WWE were having a Live Event in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He faced babyface CM Punk at the event. As Punk waved a Brazilian flag in the ring, Jericho snatched the flag from him and kicked it after first crumpling it up. If you didn't know, desecrating the Brazilian flag is an actual crime in the country and police immediately stopped the Live Event.
Police reportedly wanted to arrest Jericho on the spot but WWE quickly ushered him out of the country and issued a public apology to the government of Brazil. Jericho was suspended from WWE for a month and returned to action on the June 25 episode of WWE RAW.
During one of his one-man shows in 2014, Jericho opened up about the incident saying that he was about to be thrown in jail adding that one particular Brazilian colonel was out for his blood. He added that Vince McMahon made some calls and made sure he was flown out of Brazil immediately. Jericho ended up back in the US via Guatemala.