Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [68]
I get asked on a weekly basis why I put the Walls on differently from the way I applied the Liontamer and this was the reason why. When I started using the hold in WCW, I would bend my opponent almost in half until he was vertical to the mat by driving my knee into the back of his head. I learned the move in Japan and carried it over to WCW when I was working with guys who were the same size as me or smaller. When I got to the WWE, most of my opponents were simply too tall to apply the move the same way. Big guys like HHH, The Undertaker, Big Show, and Kane just don’t bend like that.
So the answer is quite simple. I’m too short to do it properly to the guys who are that much bigger than me.
Not that that mattered now, because due to my wounded foot, I couldn’t have bent Kane even if his name was Gumby. But I gritted my teeth and tried it for a third time, ignoring the bolt of pain that shot up my leg when I finally got the hold on. I got the submission, but was totally embarrassed and all I could think of was Brisco’s talk with me earlier that day.
“I’m done,” I thought to myself. “The guys that are burying me have all the ammo they need now. They’re going to laugh me out of this place.”
But the reaction I received was quite the opposite. When I got to the Smackdown! tapings the next day, Paul Heyman (who had come to the WWE to work as a commentator) had some interesting news.
“Vince was really impressed with you last night. He knew you were hurt but you still did the best you could to finish the match.” I was surprised he felt that way. “Vince doesn’t expect you to wrestle tonight,” Heyman continued. But even though I was in a lot of pain and could hardly walk, sitting out wasn’t an option. After all, I was the same guy who had wrestled with a broken arm in Knoxville eight years earlier. (For this story check out A Lion’s Tale, available in adult bookstores everywhere.)
“It’s froot, Paul, I want to work tonight. I’ll just tape up my foot.”
That night I was in a six-man tag with Rock and me on separate teams. After the match, I further cemented my heel status by beating the crap out of him and mocking him by standing on the second rope and smelling his nonexistent cooking.
By working the match with my injured ankle, I impressed Vince with my tenacity. As a result, he started working with me and giving me more direction on how he wanted me to act in the ring and backstage.
One night I had an interview with Terri Runnels on Raw, and right before we went live, Vince handed me an apple.
“While you are doing your interview I want you to start eating the apple. As you’re talking, I want you to spit chunks of it in her face.”
Confused, I asked, “Why?”
With a gleam in his eye, he said, “Because it’s a real asshole thing to do. Really spray it on her! Get it all over her kisser!”
I thought it was a terrible idea, but I did what I was told and spat apple chunks all over poor Terri (who had no idea it was coming) on live TV. It was disgusting, but it worked. People began booing and chanting, “You suck.” Afterwards I told Vince that initially I thought the apple was a brutal idea, but in the end it really worked.
“Of course it worked. That’s why I told you to do it.”
As a matter of fact, it worked so well that years later Vince gave the apple-spitting gimmick to Carlito. But let it stand for the record that I was the first apple spitter in the WWE—a Hall of Fame– worthy achievement if I’ve ever heard one.
Because I was a heel in wrestling, by proxy so was Fozzy. It became froot to boo us whenever we were mentioned in the WWE because of all the dirty deeds I committed on the show. Originally