Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [31]
“Howya doing Chris?” he said with a nerdy grin.
I stuffed my head into a vomit bag and fell asleep.
The night after my Mania debacle, I had a match against Eddy Guerrero. I loved Eddy like a brother, but I was praising the heavens above that the finish was Chyna turning on me, costing me the European title, and me ending up with him. I was never so happy to lose a title in my life, because it was finally the end of Chyna and Chris Jericho. Overall Chyna was a nice person and she worked hard, but we just didn’t get along. But as hard as it was working with Chyna, at least with her I was involved in a storyline. Now, without her by my side, I was dumped back into WWE purgatory. When I showed up in San Jose a month later and was told I was losing to the 450-pound Viscera, I decided it was time to talk to the boss.
One thing about Vince that was so different from WCW boss Eric Bischoff was that he was very accessible. He always made time to speak to his employees and knew the names of everybody on the crew from wrestlers to writers, cameramen to sound guys. All you had to do was knock on Vince’s door and if he had time, he would talk.
After our blowout in Tampa, I wasn’t as intimidated to talk to him as I was before—the worst thing that could possibly happen already did, and I had survived—so I went into his office and told him my concerns.
“Vince, I’ve been here for eight months, and besides the feud with Chyna, I haven’t really done much. I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels.”
He looked directly in my eyes and said, “We need to find a place for you.”
He then gave me some cryptic advice. He started talking about Bobo Brazil and what a great babyface he was and how he sold so well. Vince explained that the way a babyface got over was to sell, sell, and sell some more. I felt like Shelley “the Machine” Levine getting lectured by Alec Baldwin, but his point was loud and clear. Then he started talking about how King Kong Bundy’s work looked like shit and hurt like hell. It was a subtle message but as Mick (Winless Against Me) Foley had warned, my work was stiff and I needed to lighten up a bit.
He also told me not to get discouraged. “Your time is coming, Chris.”
It was a vague statement, but much better than hearing that I wasn’t worth the paper my contract was printed on. With his words fresh on my mind, I went to the ring and had what was, in my opinion, one of the best matches Viscera ever had. It wasn’t easy, but I worked my ass off to put him over and he did the same for me. I was even able to get him into the Walls of Jericho.
But I was still irritated about being so low on the totem pole, and I decided I was going to talk to Vince again the next week at Raw in State College, Pennsylvania.
I couldn’t find him all day and had worked myself up into a frenzy by the time I finally ran into Brian Gewirtz.
“Listen, Brian, I’m going to barge into Vince’s office and demand that he does something with me right fucking now. I’ve had enough!”
Brian listened bemusedly and said, “Okay, but before you go in there, let me tell you what we have planned for tonight.”
“Whatever, Brian, but don’t try and talk me out of it. So what am I doing?”
“You’re going to win the heavyweight title from HHH.”
My anger blew away like a Buddy Rose diet (obscure, I know) and suddenly I had a lot more interest in talking to Brian.
He explained the story of the night, a story that had been building for months.
Hunter and Stephanie were together onscreen at that point, and a few months earlier I had done a backstage pretape where I mistook Stephanie for one of the Godfather’s hos. It was supposed to be just a one-time thing, but the crowd enjoyed it so much that it became a recurring bit and started a feud between us. I started abusing her verbally on a weekly basis, ending each tirade by calling her a “filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, bottom-feeding, trash-bag ho.” The fans