Undisputed_ How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps - Chris Jericho [89]
After the match, I walked through Gorilla and was surprised to see The Undertaker waiting for me.
“Congratulations, Chris. You worked hard tonight and during your whole run as champion and I’m proud of you.”
I felt like I was Ralph Malph and the Fonz had just given me a pat on the back. My relationship with Taker had always been respectful, but he certainly didn’t have to go out of his way to say that. What made his gesture even more impressive was that he’d made the good tenminute walk through SkyDome, from the dressing room to Gorilla to give me his compliment, and that meant a lot to me. He gave me a boost when I needed it, and I’ll never forget that.
Thanks, Take.
But as good as Taker’s comments made me feel, Vince’s comments brought me right back down to earth again. When I asked him what he thought of the match, he nodded his head noncommitally and said, “It was good.”
Vince is easy to read and I could tell he was just giving me some high-class lip service. “Well, I appreciate the opportunity you gave me to be the champion and I hope I get the chance to do it again in the future.”
Instead of agreeing with my statement, he just shook my hand and thanked me stoically. I could tell that his mind was elsewhere.
The Jericho as champion experiment was over.
My suspicions that Vince had had enough of the C-man were confirmed the next day when I showed up at Raw in Montreal and wasn’t booked. I’d been the World Champion for three and a half months, yet wasn’t important enough to have any part on the program the day after I lost it. It was a total slap in the face and made me feel like a total failure. To add insult to injury, after I had carried around both titles for the duration of my reign, the day after I lost them HHH was presented with a single brand spanking new Undisputed World Championship belt.
Pissed that I was a healthy scratch, I pitched an idea to Brian where a backstage worker would tell me he was sorry I lost the title and my response would be to furiously beat the shit out of him. Vince liked the idea, and when it came time to film the bit, I apologized to my hapless victim (Trivial Author’s Note: The guy was future WWE tag champion Sylvain Grenier.) beforehand for the savage beating he was about to get. I went into a complete zone and took out all of my frustrations on the poor fella, I mean I really beat the shit out of him, so much so that The Undertaker (who happened to be watching) said,
“Damn, man! You looked completely crazy the moment that pretape began. You weren’t acting, were you?”
No, Mr. Deadman, I wasn’t.
My banishment from Raw was just the beginning. At the next month’s PPV, instead of having a rematch with HHH or beginning a new feud, I wasn’t booked again. I had to weasel my way onto the show via a promo segment where I spoke my mind about how I was the Undisputed Champion only a short month ago and now I wasn’t even able to get a match on the show. Had my championship reign really been that bad? How in the hell did I travel back to 1999? Souped up DeLorean? Magical phone booth? The Guardian of Forever?
No matter the reason, my star was fading.
But Hulk Hogan’s was rising.
At Raw in Montreal, he came to the ring and got one of biggest pops I’ve ever heard in my life. He stood in the ring with tears in his eyes as the crowd gave him a standing ovation for ten minutes. It was incredible. As a result of that reaction and others like it everywhere he went, Vince decided to switch the title to him. HHH went from being out of action for seven months, to winning the Undisputed Championship, to losing it three weeks later to a forty-nine-year-old Hulk Hogan.
About a week before Hunter dropped the title, Vince decided he wanted to split the WWE into two separate brands and run them independently. In essence, he was creating his own competition. He booked a draft on Raw to decide who would stay and who would