CM Punk recalls 2012 dangerous near-death experience in Brazil with WWE

Over a decade ago, things turned heated and extremely risky for veteran wrestler CM Punk and his opponent, Chris Jericho. In 2012, while touring Brazil with WWE, fans saw Punk and Jericho wrestle at an untelevised live show in São Paulo, Brazil. The show was headlined by Punk and Jericho for the WWE Championship.

However, shortly after the match began, things turned dangerous as people with machine guns started pointing them at Punk. While the story is known by many, Punk recently recalled the event again while appearing on Chad Ochocinco’s The Late Run podcast.

“I had machine guns pointed at me. You mention Brazil — the company went and did a show in Brazil one time, we haven’t been back. Brazil, I love you. I would like to come back. Let’s try to work on that. My opponent that night, he rolled out of the ring and snatched a Brazilian flag from somebody. You know where this is going, Brazil don’t play. In America, you get people who will get bent out of shape, but there’s no law against it,” Punk shared.

He further described how his opponent [Chris Jericho] proceeded to disrespect the flag. While there are no specific rules about it in the USA, people in Brazil are extremely sensitive about their national flag, which caused turmoil.

“He rolled in the ring, I’m down looking at him going, ‘Hm.’ I can’t remember exactly if he just threw it down and stepped on it or if he maybe wiped his butt with it. The instant this happened, all of a sudden there’s a second referee in the ring, and I’m going, ‘What’s going on?’ One referee is talking to him, the other referee is talking to me, trying to relay the information. Then, our head of talent relations is in the ring. This all happens lickety-split,” Punk further shared.

“I’m looking around like, ‘Okay, what?’ I turn, and I look, and the ring is surrounded by men in fatigues. One has his gun pointed directly at me. They were offended. The extra referee and the head of talent relations were like, ‘This match is over, we got to wrap this up.’ Homeboy who did the thing was like, Absolutely not, I refuse to do this.’ So, I had to roll him up for real. Stack him up, and the ref counted to three.”

In the same interview, Punk further continued and explained how he tried to diffuse the situation by getting the fans on his side. “Crowd pops, I grab the flag, jump up on the turnbuckle, I’m showing it and kissing the flag. Then I got out of there. They tried to snatch the dude up, grab his passport. We knew if he handed his passport over, he wasn’t coming home. So, by the cover of night, we got him out of there, and then we continued on the tour. He went home.”

While Punk doesn’t mention Jericho’s name while recalling the story, the incident is quite well known and even led to Jericho getting suspended from WWE for 30 days.

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