Titus O’Neil suspended for grabbing Vince McMahon on air

In a surprising move, WWE’s Titus O’Neil was immediately sent home upon arriving to last night’s Smackdown tapings in Portland, Oregon, suspended for “unprofessional conduct” according to PWInsider.com. WWE has confirmed that the suspension is 90 days.

For those who watched the Daniel Bryan retirement segment as it transitioned to the WWE Network, you saw the incident occuring just before the screen went to black as Bryan and his wife went backstage. O’Neil grabbed CEO Vince McMahon as he was heading backstage. The grabbing is not being reported as malicious. but rather “playful”. Nonetheless, McMahon didn’t appreciate the gesture, and over the years, we have learned what that means.

The YouTube video has been edited to remove what happened, but here’s a GIF of what happened.

The 38-year-old O’Neil has been with WWE since 2009. After a two-year-stint in Florida Championship Wrestling, he was featured on the second season of NXT and had Zack Ryder as a mentor. It didn’t help as he was eliminated first, but returned for the show’s fifth season.

He moved up to the main roster in 2012, teaming with fellow NXT talent Darren Young to form the Prime Time Players. He and Young won the WWE tag team titles once — his only title in WWE.