A Lion's Tale_ Around the World in Spandex - Chris Jericho [165]
I continued watching the retirement ceremony, and my phone rang. After my stupid message played, I heard a deep voice.
“Chris, this is not Wayne Gretzky, this is Vince McMahon.”
I was agog (still a great word) that:
a) Vince was actually calling me at my house; and
b) He’d had to endure such a goofy message.
I picked up the phone in a scramble and bumbled out a hello.
“Wayne Gretzky, huh?”
“Well, he just retired today.”
“I know, I know. He’s a god for you Canadians, isn’t he?” Then he burst out in the patented VKM overexaggerated belly laugh.
After a few pleasantries were exchanged, Vince got right to the point.
“Are you going to come work for me? We really want you here.”
That was all he needed to say. I had the head of WCW calling me a fucking liar and a piece of shit while the head of the WWF was calling me at my home asking me to come work for him. Vinegar and honey, right? It was an awesome selling technique by Vince and it worked, not that I needed much prodding at that point anyway.
After repeated attempts by Eric to have other WCW employees, from DDP, to Nash, to Eric’s business partner, Jason Hervey, from The Wonder Years (Fred Savage wasn’t available for comment) asking me to stay, he finally changed his tune and started being really nice.
He put together a new offer that with incentives could’ve ended up in the high six figures. But it was too little too late because on top of everything else, Eric had hurt my feelings. I felt damaged as a performer and as a person and it would’ve been difficult for me to go back to WCW smiling like nothing had happened.
I’d decided that $1 million (pinky finger on bottom lip) was the magic number that would make me think about staying. But they never offered it to me so I didn’t have to consider it.
When I confided to my friends that I was thinking of leaving, they told me to get out and never look back. My dad told me, “Sometimes the devil you don’t know is better than the one that you do.” While I’m still not sure exactly what that means, I appreciated the advice.
Even Brian Hildebrand, who was honored just to be working in the wrestling business, thought it would in my best interests to take my chances elsewhere. Brian’s cancer had returned and he was forced to take a leave of absence from WCW (which tore him apart), with the caveat that his job would be waiting for him no matter how long it took for him to get better.
Eric wasn’t my favorite person at that point, but his treatment of Brian during his hard times was first-class. He even orchestrated a Brian Hildebrand Tribute show in Brian’s home city of Knoxville (in the same building I’d wrestled with a broken arm four years earlier). Brian was quite touched by WCW’s efforts and when asked what match he wanted to see on the show, he requested Benoit and Malenko vs. Eh and Wey, North and South of the Border, the Greatest Tag Team That Barely Ever Was...Guerrero and Jericho.
The four of us had wrestled the match before but always with limited TV time. This time there were none of those shackles and in an unprecedented move, Arn Anderson, who was running the show, put our match on last. It was the first and only time I was ever in the main event of a WCW show and the four of us responded by having one of the best matches of our careers.
Brian was too weak to work on the show, but he was sitting ringside the whole night. I grabbed the mike before the match and cut a vicious promo accusing him of faking his cancer to elicit sympathy from the stupid rednecks. Brian looked at me in defiance as the crowd booed the hell out of me, and I know he loved it.
The finish was the best ending to a movie ever. The ref got knocked out just as Dean put me in his Cloverleaf submission and Benoit put Eddy into his Crossface submission. Just as we tapped out, Brian slid into the ring and signaled for the bell with his trademark double-handed bang-bang motion to a massive pop. Everyone in the building gave him a standing ovation and the smile on his face was big enough for Oprah to bathe in. It will be etched