Chris Jericho Blasts WWE Hall of Famer for Harassing Transgender Wrestler
Chris Jericho is showing support for a transgender professional wrestler. WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner recently made headlines after being accused of harassing Impact Wrestling star Gisele Shaw who is transgender. Shaw went to social media to talk about her encounter with Steiner at WrestleCon where she alleges she was the victim of anti-trans harassment. In a response to the Instagam post, Jericho mentioned that Steiner bullied him and other WCW stars such as Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero during a match.
"Hey! Don't even worry about this," Jericho wrote, per TJ Wrestling. "[Rick Steiner] has always been a bully and has gotten away with so much because he is a 'Steiner'. Makes me laugh cause I fell for the same s— when he bullied me, Eddie, Chris, Oscar, juvie etc at World War 3 1997!! I got your back [Gisele Shaw] …and if Rick has an issue with this, I'd love to discuss with him anytime. It's 2023 dude…grow the f— up!"
In the Instagram post, Shaw detailed her incident with Steiner. "I was at an autograph signing today at WrestleCon and while I was walking to my table, I hear someone yelling 'you're a man,' 'you're a dude,' 'you're a piece of trash,' 'You are filth,' 'get the f-k away from here,'" Shaw writes in her statement. "It didn't sit well with me and I wanted to know who was saying that because it's unacceptable, so I decided to take a walk in that area and I hear that same person saying the same derogatory comments. I looked at the person and it was Rick Steiner saying those statements. I was shocked and could not believe that this was even happening. To have someone saying those comments who a lot of people look up to and consider their hero was quite shocking and disheartening."
Shaw continued: "Another disappointing part about this whole thing was that there were other wrestling legends who just sat there, turned their heads away, did not want to get involved, or stand up for what's right because it involved 'one of the boys.' Judging from that experience, it was more important for them to watch something wrong go down as [opposed] to standing up for someone who's being bullied and doing what's right."
A video recently surfaced of Steiner being confronted about the incident while traveling through an airport with WWE legends Lex Luger and Ron Simmons, but Steiner didn't comment on the matter. Steiner, 62, was one half of the popular tag team The Steiner Brothers with Scott Steiner. The duo won the WWF Tag Team Championship twice and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year.