Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Just so everyone knows, even though the official release date is Tuesday of next week, Amazon is already shipping it. I placed an order on Saturday and I got it today. The book is definitely worth reading. I will comment more in detail after I've read the whole thing, as I just did kind of a skim. I could do without the Fozzy and life outside of wrestling stuff, but I also knew it would be here before picking up this book. I think, if anything, Jericho may have been *too* self-critical. He walks through all of his big programs and give his honest opinions on all of them, blaming himself for quite a few things not working out. He also sheds some light on his relationship with Vince McMahon over the years, which I would categorize as HIGHLY up and down. There is more than one time where Vince just tears him to shreds. This book may be the ultimate vindication of Wade Keller. It may just be a case of him framing it in a way to not burn any bridges, but it seems like the problem bigger than HHH was that he seemed to have a pretty rocky relationship with Vince. There are moments that are good, and there are far more moments where they seem to be butting heads over something or other. He's blunt when discussing HHH, but doesn't really provide much commentary, except for his anger over HHH's Off The Record interview in '02 where he felt disrespected, and a few times HHH kinda gave him the cold shoulder early in the run. He gave all the praise you could possibly give to Austin, Rock and Hogan. However, in the end, it's strange that after skimming all the wrestling chapters, I went from wondering why he wasn't pushed way more than he was during his first run to having a better understanding of why he wasn't pushed harder than he was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Does he talk about Benoit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 There is a whole chapter on his relationship with Benoit, which is one of the best parts of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I love the story from the RAW the week after HHH tore his quad when they were in Calgary. Jericho's mic stopped working and he threw it into the crowd. Vince asked him later why he did that and he said he had seen Austin do it a few times. Vince told him Steve Austin gets to throw his mic into the crowd. Chris Jericho sets his mic down and politely waits for a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Around the time of Summerslam '04, Jericho felt his stock was dropping and that he was falling into the dreaded "good hand" category. He wasn't on Raw the next night either. So he asked Vince why he wasn't on the show. Vince completely tore into him, told him to grow up and that lots of people want to be on the show that aren't. He told him he has a huge chip on his shoulder and thinks he knows everything and that he's this accomplished wrestler and he's not at all. He also told him he was getting a reputation for being very difficult to work with. There's also another time when Jericho had the undisputed title and told him he knew people were in his ear telling him that putting the title on Jericho wasn't a good idea, but they could go fuck themselves, and that if Vince thought it was a bad idea, he could go fuck himself too. He was kinda shocked he said it and thought Vince was about to rip him a new one, but after a few seconds of awkward silence, Vince hugged him and told him that's exactly the attitude he had been looking for. He said he knew had all this drive and passion but never showed it. He wanted him to carry himself like a champion with confidence and was glad he felt that way. I thought the Jericho/Vince love-hate relationship was the best part of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 It's slightly ironic Vince telling someone that they have a rep as someone very difficult to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I wonder how much Chris saw of others putting in the bad word about him to Vince to undercut him. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I think he saw some, but a lot of the book reads like people who were in the inner circle who liked him would pull him aside and tell him what was going on. He was pretty close to Patterson, saying he and Rock were probably closer to Patterson than any two guys in the company. He also mentioned Gerald Brisco pulling him aside once to tell him he needed to make sure he stepped it up big time because the knives were out. W/R/T the early HHH stuff, he talks about how his first night, HHH gave him his cell phone and told him to call him if he ever needed anything. Not long after, he was having trouble finding an arena, so he called HHH to see if he knew how to find the arena. HHH responded, "Yeah, get a map" and hung up, and he said he could hear the DX guys cracking up in the background the whole time. Also, with the homeless guy on Smackdown thing, he said when he asked HHH about it, HHH said he thought Jericho would find it humorous. He also doesn't come right out and say it, but he does say Flair gave him advice frequently. Since Flair was close with HHH at that point, the implication is that he was filling Jericho in on what was going on. He does mention how Hogan had a great attitude and was so easy to work with, but it was very difficult working with Flair because of his need for reassurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Does he write anything about the internet meltdown that led him to take down his own site? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Does he write anything about the internet meltdown that led him to take down his own site? No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 If HHH hadn't married the boss's daughter and wasn't such a politician, it's pretty obvious Jericho would have been a much bigger star. It always cracked me up when I heard about Jericho "not knowing how to work" when he first showed up in WWF in fall of 1999. Yeah, right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 If HHH hadn't married the boss's daughter and wasn't such a politician, it's pretty obvious Jericho would have been a much bigger star. It always cracked me up when I heard about Jericho "not knowing how to work" when he first showed up in WWF in fall of 1999. Yeah, right. Actually, while HHH was part of the problem, I think the bigger issue was that Vince thought he was personally a pain in the ass, and Vince also felt like he dropped the ball with every opportunity he got. Jericho admits that he came in not knowing the proper way to work WWF style, and he just assumed the WWF and WCW styles were the exact same. He accepts plenty of blame for things going wrong for him early on, while at the same time offering plenty of criticism to Vince for not talking to him sooner. I would have leaned more in your direction before reading the book. Jericho had a match with The Rock on Raw and grabbed someone's drink and threw it in Rock's face thinking it was a Sprite. It was tobacco spit. The guy had the total opposite of Midas touch for several months upon his arrival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 My review at Cageside. Ignoring HHH and Stephanie being SH00T!married felt like a political move somehow. What other reason could there be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 "Knowing how to work the WWF style" always seemed funny to me since really, "WWF style" = toned down, simplistic wrestling. WWF style really is the lesser style ever anywhere. Throwing tobacco spit would have got over just fine in Mid South or Memphis in the 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Jerome, that's really not it. There are all sorts of weird rules and intricacies not present in other promotions. Loss alerted me to the fact that the review at that one spyware site gives an actual number for Jericho's inital WM18 payoff ($95,000) before he complained that HHH got five times as much and was given an additional check to make up for it. Jericho's book just says "five figures." This is the same website that posted quotes from the Benoit chapter in August before quickly pulling the article. Be a little less obvious, dudes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 It's not about getting over, it's that he caught Rock off guard, and the perception was that he had taken liberties with him. Make whatever argument about the style, but there is a patterned bumping style in WWE. Jericho mentioned how in WCW, wrestlers sold something by staying down, and in WWE, heels are expected to immediately get up and fall down again and again and again, to basically bump off of every single piece of babyface offense and get right back up. So things like that made the matches look uncoordinated. Jericho got some stuff he didn't deserve, but you can't really watch those matches he had the first few months in the company and think he was doing everything right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Jerome, that's really not it. There are all sorts of weird rules and intricacies not present in other promotions. I'm aware of that, I'm being overly simplistic on purpose. I just dislike the WWE for all these bullshit rules, that make wrestling much less fun to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Jericho got some stuff he didn't deserve, but you can't really watch those matches he had the first few months in the company and think he was doing everything right. Probably, but Jericho spent years in WCW working with different kind of workers, from guys like Dean and Eddie to luchadors like Juvy and Rey to ECW guys like Raven and had no issue at all. Suddenly he gets into WWF and problem occurs. Reminds me how Shane Douglas was already excellent in 94, gets in WWF and Waltman & Hall decide Douglas can't work, then when Douglas gets back in ECW in 96 he delivers matches better than anything that was happening at the same time in WWF against Sabu, 2 Cold Scorpio and Whipreck. Way too much bullshit with the so-called "WWF/E style". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Notice none of those guys are heavies. He worked a lot of guys who had little differences, but were all doing a Japanese or Mexican-influenced style that he understood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Notice none of those guys are heavies. He worked a lot of guys who had little differences, but were all doing a Japanese or Mexican-influenced style that he understood. What about Raven ? Wasn't Waltman the first guy who complained about jericho anyway ? I still think this is mostly bullshit. Two years later, Jericho was having great matches with Rock and Austin, toning down his style to work the infamous "WWF style". That didn't keep HHH from stunking up the joint with him in overlong boring matches that did nothing but bury Jericho. Anyway, the book does sound very interesting, and I'm looking forward to read more of your thoughts about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomk Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 Jericho had a match with The Rock on Raw and grabbed someone's drink and threw it in Rock's face thinking it was a Sprite. It was tobacco spit. I am not Randazzo and hardly ever listen to wrestling shoots, but I'm pretty sure this is at least the fourth time I've heard someone tell that story (with different people in the Jericho and Rock roles) to illustrate "yeah at that point I (or some other hardluck putz) couldn't do anything right". It's a great story, I'd use it too. Notice none of those guys are heavies. He worked a lot of guys who had little differences, but were all doing a Japanese or Mexican-influenced style that he understood. I don't know if Shamrock is really a true heavyweight and worked a poor man's version of the style that Jericho was able to work oppsite Booker T or Duncum Jr. Neither Xpac, Roaddog or D-Lo are anything near true heavys (and all guys who've been trained in a style Jericho would have underrstood). Doesn't feel like this is a statement about his opponents, so much as a WWF house style. This does add a new insight to the Kurt Angle/Horshu complaint that Eddie sold to much and wouldn't pop up fast enough (although at the time Horshu/Angle were the heels). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Any cool insights into his program with Steamboat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 The book stops with him returning in 2007. He left the door open for a third book, so he doesn't cover the last run at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 This is obviously anecdotal and maybe after the fact but seeing Jericho's real life personality on Twitter and in the media the last half decade or so I can see that person having a *real* difficult time getting along with Vince McMahon. Being snarky and saying what's on your mind doesn't mesh well with Vince. Everything from 99 on is starting to make sense now Thanks for the recapping Loss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 My review at Cageside. Ignoring HHH and Stephanie being SH00T!married felt like a political move somehow. What other reason could there be? Since everyone knows they're married, maybe he doesn't mention it because it doesn't matter. I just rewatched the Jericho DVD and he seemed more disapointed that him and Steph as partners just fizzled because it didn't work from the start. I haven't read it yet, does he go into how much he liked his feud with Steph as he does on the DVD? I mean, why would he be "political" about HHH and Steph being married when he's never really been shy about saying what's on his mind? Shit the first book has a HHH jab and the DVD has some subtle digs at HHH. Oh, he loves to laugh at "insiders" who got upset at his "firing" with the crying and being carried away...pointing out that it was his idea because he was a bad guy, not the "evil office embarrasing him". Does he go into that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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