A Lion's Tale_ Around the World in Spandex - Chris Jericho [129]
I’m not saying that Eric didn’t know who I was, but I don’t think he’d seen any of my work besides the Dragon match. I know damn well that he didn’t see my work at the Peace Festival, because he left before the show started. I thought that it was strange that he didn’t stick around to check out his new prospect, but in hindsight it was a typical WCW move.
A few days later I called Paul E. to tell him about Eric’s offer and, to my surprise, he already knew. At that point, Paul had a huge influence on the business and had spies everywhere who told him everything. I think he still appreciated my honesty in telling him myself.
“Bischoff made me an offer to go to WCW, but I don’t know if I really want to go.”
“Well don’t go then,” he said matter-of-factly.
I didn’t have to explain the reasons why I couldn’t say no and he knew I was gone. But to my surprise, he explained that before I left he wanted me to win the ECW television championship.
It took a lot of trust for Paul to want that, as I had no contract with him. I could’ve won the belt and thrown it in the garbage can on live WCW TV. But he trusted me and I took that very seriously. We agreed it was best for business to keep the WCW deal a secret until my last night with ECW. We couldn’t have done that now with the influence of the Internet, but back in those medieval times secrets could still be kept secret.
The plan was for me to win the title at the ECW Arena from Pitbull #2. The day I was supposed to leave Paul called and left a FedEx tracking number on my answering machine, explaining that my plane ticket had been FedExed to the airport and I had to pick it up.
Why would a FedEx be at the airport? Why wouldn’t they just deliver it to my house?
I drove to the FedEx outlet at the airport, but when I gave them the number, they told me that it was a digit short, nine numbers instead of ten.
The night before the match I was still waiting for my plane ticket. Even though Paul was notorious for leaving flight arrangements to the last minute, this was getting ricockulous.
I was stir-crazy in my apartment waiting, so I left for a beer. When I came back a few hours later there was still no word from Paul. I called him every hour to no avail, until I finally said, “I’ve been calling you all night with no response. I don’t care about your stupid belt and I’m not coming to your stupid show. Later.”
I hung up and literally thirty seconds later, Paul called me back.
He was as friendly as can be and said cheerily, “Hey, what are you doing? I’ve been hanging out with a bunch of strippers and I just got home. I called you a few hours ago and left a message on your tape. There’s a ticket waiting for you at the airport.”
I had an answering machine with no messages on it and a caller ID with no calls on it, which proved two things:
1. I was a loser with no friends.
2. Paul E. was telling another bald-faced lie.
Jim Cornette once said that Paul E. would rather climb a tree and lie than stay on the ground and tell the truth. I was starting to agree, although this was probably Paul’s revenge for me deciding to jump to WCW. I wanted to tell him him to go to hell, but he was one of those guys who was impossible to stay mad at. Besides, I was still excited that I was about to win my first American championship.
The match for the title was one of the best of my career and ended with me reversing Pitbull #2’s top rope power bomb into a Frankensteiner for the victory. The move came out of nowhere and the crowd exploded out of their chairs when I won. It was a gas to watch the tape back and see their various euphoric reactions to my victory. On the eve of my exit, I had become a big part of the family.
After my victory, I jumped into the crowd and celebrated with the fans, even trading my belt for Hat Guy’s Panama lid. I was the ECW TV champion at twenty-five years old and it was a great moment in Jeric-History.
I continued the celebration by hosting