Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [83]
But there was a reprieve coming that would prove to the company (and most important to myself) that I did have the attributes to be a great World Champion.
CHAPTER 23
Whiskey Gargling
Three weeks before WrestleMania my salvation arrived in the form of an Asian tour to Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. I had a good history and a great fan base in Japan, who’d seen me have some of the best matches of my career. I hadn’t been there in four years and was hungry to return to show them what I’d learned during my time away. Most important of all, I was booked against The Rock for all three shows and he brought out the best in me. He’d just finished The Scorpion King and was killing two birds with one rock by promoting the movie in Asia and touring with the WWE at the same time.
The first show was in Yokohama Arena and had sold 18,000 tickets in sixty minutes. Rock and I were the main event and I was honored to be headlining a sold-out show in my adopted home country in front of some of the best fans in the world.
I was getting prepared for the match when Flair found me in the dressing room.
“This is the real deal over here, Chris. Being the World Champion means more in Japan than it does anywhere else. You know how much these people respect the tradition and the history of this business and the work you have to put in to become champion. They’re expecting your best, and I know you’re ready to give that to them. Enjoy this night and tear the house down—be the champion that I know you can be.”
It was an inspiring pep talk from one of the greatest champions of all time and the last push over the cliff that I needed. I forgot all about dogshit in the dressing room, being pussyless-whipped, and mediocre matches. It was my time to shine.
My music played and as I walked through the curtain the fans jumped to their feet clapping and cheering. I had grown up in front of their eyes, starting in Japan as a twenty-year-old rookie. Now that I was a thirty-one-year-old champion, they had as much pride in me as I did in myself.
I was walking up the ring steps when I saw the Great Muta at ringside. He was one of the biggest stars in the history of Japanese wrestling and had just taken over the reins of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Throughout the evening, many of the other wrestlers had paid him their respects by shaking his hand or giving him the thumbs-up as they walked by. Being a heel and knowing how the Japanese style works, I walked over to Muta and smacked him in the face. He fell off his chair and then tried to jump the rail and attack me as his young boys held him back. All the fans were oohing and ahhing in shock as the ringside photographers snapped as many pictures as they could. Then The Rock’s music played and the fracas broke up instantly as the entire arena exploded.
It was the first time that The Rock, the biggest star in the WWE, had ever appeared in Japan, the most wrestling-crazed country on the planet. The reaction he received was one of the loudest I’d ever heard in my career. It was as if Elvis had joined the Beatles and all of them were wearing Godzilla costumes. The normally polite and reserved Japanese jumped to their feet and chanted, “LOCK-Y, LOCK-Y” in unison with orange-segment smiles on their faces. They had adopted the fairly new American tradition of making their own signs and there were hundreds of them glorifying Rock’s name and vilifying mine.
They were ready to be the type of audience they had seen on Raw, as opposed to the typical quiet, polite Japanese crowd. There were even boos at the beginning of the show when Shane McMahon used a translator to greet them—they understood English and weren’t about to be patronized. The combination of their electric reaction with the special chemistry Rocky and I had spurred us to accomplish exactly what Flair had demanded. We tore that damn house down.
It was