Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [80]
There, I’d said it. I had told the great Vince McMahon to go fuck himself. But it was how I truly felt, and I was relieved.
Now I would have to deal with the consequences.
Vince stared at me with an expressionless look. I bowed my head and waited for him to unsheathe the Sword of Damocles and decapitate my mutinous ass.
He continued staring at me with a death gaze, barely moving a muscle.
(Time moving slow … the minutes seemed like hours … the final curtain call I see.)
Finally Vince moved, but instead of disemboweling me, his expression changed from that of a stone-cold serial killer to one of a delighted child opening his favorite present at six o’clock on a Christmas morning.
“That’s exactly the attitude I want from you! That’s what I wanted to hear!” Vince said, his expression mirroring Dr. Emmett Brown’s when he discovered the DeLorean could actually travel through time.
“You need to believe you’re the champion and act like it at all times! When Bret Hart was the champion, he believed it and nobody could tell him differently. That’s what I want from you! I know that you have this passion and believe in yourself, but you haven’t shown that to me up until now. You’re the first Undisputed Champion in the history of this business, dammit! Now prove to me that you deserve it.”
I had just kicked the devil in the nuts and survived to tell the tale.
Minutes later, Pat came over and said, “What did you say to Vince?”
“I told him to go fuck himself,” I said in a half daze.
“Really?” Pat said in shock. “Well, whatever you said worked, because he can’t stop putting you over! You know what, Jericho, you’ve got some bigs ball, kid!”
The next PPV was the Royal Rumble, where I was booked to face Rocky in the main event for the title. Rock was my favorite opponent and I could finally show off why I was worthy of being World Champion. The idea was for me to retain the title by beating him with a screwjob, which usually meant a low blow, outside interference, or the use of a foreign object. I decided that I’d get as much heat out of it as I could and use all three. So I had the Unamericans (Christian, Lance Storm, and Test) run down to cause a distraction. With the ref preoccupied, I nutshotted Rock, bashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle, and pinned him with both feet on the ropes. The crowd in Atlanta was furious and booed me like millionaires at an Obama rally. The victory gave me a major credibility boost and was the highlight of my run as the Undisputed Champion.
The PPV also marked the triumphant return of HHH, who finally came back from his quad injury after seven months. He won the Royal Rumble and secured a title shot at WrestleMania X8, but he wasn’t the only familiar face to return to the WWE roster.
At the end of the show, Vince teased that he was bringing the original NWO faction of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Hulk Hogan into the WWE for the first time ever. I wasn’t the only one who was surprised or concerned that three of the biggest contributors to the demise of WCW were getting a chance to spread their cancer in the WWE.
There were quite a few members of the roster who remembered what it was like in WCW when the NWO was in power, and they weren’t thrilled about their impending arrival. The whole locker room was up in arms, uncertain as to what exactly would happen when they arrived. Would they destroy the locker room with their horrible attitudes? Would they work their dark Jedi mind tricks on Vince like they had Eric? Who could stop them? Who would save us?
There was only one man with the power to combat the NWO. I had to seek out the man who had everybody’s respect across the board and the greatest influence within the company. He was the oracle. He was the