The D-Generation X Glow Stick Incident At A WWE Live Event, Explained
Mia Walsh
Published Mar 28, 2026
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Chris Jericho has earned his place as one of the best talkers in the industry. His WWE debut segment with The Rock, the 1,004 holds promo, and of course The List of Jericho, are just a few of his accomplishments on the mic. However, there are some great moments of his career that most fans are simply unable to experience due to them taking place at a live event. One such moment came at a 2009 house show in the midst of his feud with D-Generation X. It was in the O2 Arena in London where Jericho provoked the London crowd to throw their DX glow sticks at him after he got hit by one. They certainly obliged, to say the least.
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Chris Jericho Gets Hit In The Face With A Glow Stick And Tells The Crowd To Keep Doing It
At house shows, wrestlers usually have much more leeway in terms of improvisation and creativity due to the event not being televised. It's a common saying among wrestling fans that house shows aren't canon because, for the most part, they don't impact storylines in any way. At this point in Jericho's career, he was still in his acclaimed heel run and he was also one half of the tag team champions with The Big Show. He was scheduled to face John Cena on this night. Before the match, though, he cut a typical heel promo on the crowd. He was doing his usual stuff around this time like calling the fans hypocrites, but since he was in London, he spiced things up at bit. He started making fun of their accents and their teeth. Well, British people have always been a raucous wrestling crowd, and they did something unexpected which in turn led to Jericho do something unexpected.
During this specific DX run in 2009, WWE were pushing the bright green glow sticks. The company was well into the PG era at this point, so merch with DX's butts hanging out would be just a tad inappropriate. As Jericho let the boos rain down on him, one of those DX glow sticks suddenly came soaring down and hit him in the face. Credit to that fan for the terrific aim because it hit Jericho right in the eye. Jericho was pissed, but he stood there for a second and collected himself. He then proceeded to tell the crowd to keep throwing them, which they did. An overabundance of green glow sticks started flying towards the ring, which Jericho and the ref had to dodge like ninjas. The glow sticks kept coming until Cena's music started up.
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Stephanie McMahon Wanted Chris Jericho Fined And Suspended
As the show ended and Jericho made his way to the back, he was told that Stephanie McMahon wasn't so happy about what had transpired, and she wanted him fined and suspended. As Jericho so eloquently put it in a Busted Open Radio interview, "Well, Stephanie's not my boss. I don't give a s--t what Stephanie wants."
After hearing this, though, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He called Vince and, "leaves a promo on his answering machine." He went on about how he's a heel, he did heel things, he lost the match, he did his job, so what's the issue? Vince responded back with a smiley face and told him to, "calm down, Junior," and with that, the incident was never brought up again by Jericho or the McMahons.
Chris Jericho's Used The Incident To Explain How He's Able To Call Audibles In The Ring
As previously mentioned, Jericho was quite pissed when he got hit with the glow stick. Reasonably so. It's not exactly the most pleasing situation. However, Jericho went on to explain that if a wrestler is good enough on the mic, they can use situations like that to their advantage, like he did that night in London. Jericho said that he could've let himself stay pissed, or he could use it to get real heel heat, which he did. He told the crowd to give him everything they got. He told them to throw them and keep throwing them. Then funnily enough, he explained how the crowd got even more angry because they wasted the money they just spent on the glow sticks. Jericho went on to claim that that's why Vince didn't get upset with him. He was able to use that situation to get farther with the crowd and their reactions.
The best and most fun moments are usually the ones that no one expects. Those moments are made even better when they happen to someone as experienced as Chris Jericho. Jericho's actions that night may have made a few people upset, but he didn't care. He did his job and he did it well. The full incident is on Youtube for all to see and thoroughly enjoy.
