Mark Coleman Recalls Getting Banned From WWE Events After Ringside Incident With Chris Jericho

Mark Coleman says that he was persona non grata at WWE after he had a ringside incident with Chris Jericho. The UFC Hall of Famer was a guest on The Hannibal TV and during the conversation he was asked why, despite having had matches in Japan with mahor companies like NJPW and AJPW, he never ended up continuing his career in the US.

“As far as the WWE, I became champion of the UFC and they had just hired Dan Severn and Tank Abbott, Ken Shamrock,” Coleman recalled (per Fightful). “Shamrock did pretty good. Tank was the biggest flop ever and then, Severn was very average. So they weren’t so high on the UFC guys anymore”

He continued, “But they did bring me to one of the shows, and I showed up rather drunk. Very, very drunk. I got backstage. I messed with Chris Jericho. He got thrown out of the ring and I was ringside and I was just telling him to get his ass up you pus*y. I was yelling like a fan. I said, ‘Get up Jericho, you pussy,’ this and that. Well, he looked up at me, made eye contact with me and he flips me off and he said something to me and he went backstage and he complained to whoever was back there and all of a sudden, I wasn’t allowed backstage anymore so, I didn’t hear from ‘em after that… They blew it because I could have had some epic, epic matches with ole Kurt Angle and a few other guys. We would have freaking killed it.”

Coleman was the first-ever UFC Heavyweight Champion has worked only a handful of matches since 2005, most recently in 2001 when he competed once at AAA//American Icon Jacksonmania 3 in a six-on-five handicap match.