Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [21]
I stopped in the hallway to take a breath and figure out what had just happened. Yesterday I was on the top of the world. Now less than twenty-four hours later, my girlfriend was barely able to move, and I had just been told that I wasn’t worth the paper my contract was printed on. My career was hanging by a thread, totally dependent on my performance that night. Needless to say, it was the most important match of my life.
I went and told X-Pac what had just transpired, and of course he acted like he had no idea I had any heat. But I was far beyond caring about pride or bravado and asked him to put that night’s entire match together, and it went well—not amazing or even all that memorable—but it was good enough for Vince to give me a thumbs-up after it was over.
I had gotten a reprieve and my career was saved from extinction for at least another day. But I was still deep in the hole and knew it was going to take a long time to pull myself out.
It was time to grab the rope and start climbing.
I searched the arena until I found Chyna standing smugly in the hallway, wearing gloves, smelling like vanilla, and sporting the smallest baby bruise under her eye.
She was the enemy and we both knew it—and I had to apologize to her.
“Hey, I just talked with Vince and I want to say that I’m ssoo … ssoooo … ssoooo …”
Like the Fonz, I was genetically unable to apologize to this woman.
So I stuck my fingers right up her nose.
I shook myself out of my dream state and continued talking.
“Hey, I just talked with Vince and I want to say that I’m ssss … sorry for giving you that shiner. It was an accident. But I still really liked the match, though. A lot of people told me that we stole the show.”
Her face was Vulcan and it was clear she was expecting the apology, because she was quite short with her response.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s okay, no problem.”
She couldn’t have been more insincere with her reply to my atonement, and it made me sick. But I had done what Vince wanted and now I needed to investigate a little more as to why I had been crucified.
I knew one Triple H would surely have some insight. I saw him a few minutes later and got right to the heart of the matter.
“Hey, I need to ask you a question … do I have heat?”
To his credit, he was totally honest with me. “Yeah, you’ve got a lot of heat. You’ve got scorching heat.”
Even though it was axiomatic that I was in the doghouse, it was still a shock to hear him say it so bluntly.
“Why?”
“Why? Well, ever since you got here, all you talk about is how you did things in WCW. You act like you have all the answers and know everything, like you’re a huge star, but you haven’t proven shit. We have a different way of doing things here and you’re not getting it.”
In retrospect, he was right. Whenever I put together my matches, I was always talking about things I had done in WCW and how things were different in the WWE. I’d made the mistake of thinking that I could fit in right off the bat, instead of adapting to the new style like I had when I first went to Japan or Mexico or ECW.
I felt terrible, but I wanted to make as many amends as I could, so I went to talk to The Rock. I found him in the dressing room and told him that Vince had just torn me a new intestinal tract opening and asked whether he had complained to anyone about me stealing his catchphrase.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, yesterday I did a promo and got the crowd to chant, ‘Go Jericho Go.’ ”
“Well, that’s not even close to the same thing.”
Rock could see that I was shaken up. “Chris, you’ve got to realize that the cream always rises to the top in this business. I’ve been watching you since WCW and you’re good. But you have to rise above this and not get eaten by the sharks. I went through the same thing when I first started here, but I always kept my confidence and rose above it. You have to do the same thing.”
I appreciated his pep talk, as it was nice to hear somebody say they thought I was