The latest incident of a wrestling fan or audience member going too far in a year full of them occurred this past Saturday night in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
Alberto Del Rio was working the World Wrestling Council (WWC) show at Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum to fulfill an outstanding commitment to the promotion - which is run by WWE Hall of Famer Carlos Colón - from before his surprise return to Vince McMahon's employ at Hell in a Cell.
During his bout with Ray González, a fan grabs him while he's outside the ring and delivers several pro wrestling-style clubbing forearm to his back before his opponent, and security, arrive to separate them. Site staff escorts the fan out while Del Rio and González continue the match in the ring (eventually won by the Puerto Rican legend when El Hijo de Dos Caras - Del Rio's real life younger brother and former WWE developmental roster member Memo Montenegro - broke up a Figure Four on Alberto, triggering the disqualification).
You can see the incident start to unfold at around the seven second mark of the above video. Thankfully, no one appears to have been injured, and the idiot's plan goes about as well as you'd think attacking a guy with a mean streak and a shoot mixed martial arts background when he's backed by a full security team would go...including ADR snatching the guy's mask off his head.
In all seriousness, this is another in a string of incidents this year that's seen Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins be the target of unwelcome and sometimes violent fan interaction during shows. Audience members/marks who get caught up in the stories their watching have long been a part of pro wrestling, but considering everything else going on in the world, this recent trend feels more dangerous than old-time stories of senior citizens throwing stuff at top heels.
Hopefully, increased awareness and - at least for WWE - the heightening of security in response to all kinds of possible threats will prevent one of these incidents from becoming tragic.