Chris Jericho is currently suspended for stomping on the Brazilian flag while at a WWE show in Brazil, which basically sets the tone for his career. He has been known as a hated heel for many years, but that is the character he plays and not the true Chris Jericho, who is actually Chris Irvine.
A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex came out in 2007, but I highly recommend it to any WWE fans that have not read it yet. Jericho offers the story of how hard it is for someone to break into the world of wrestling and achieve the ultimate goal of reaching the WWE.
Jericho’s wrestling tale began with him and his friends in his Winnipeg high school gym and led to his training at the Hart Brothers Camp in Calgary. His journey took him all over the world, from Canada to Mexico to Germany to Japan and eventually to the States.
During this time, which is a majority of the book, Jericho describes his time with the people he met all around the world. These people included the late Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit. He worked with both and followed, for the most part, their career paths.
Jericho has fun in this book, and tells many inside jokes about his time in the wrestling business. However, he does get serious several times in this book. One of these times is in the beginning, where he mentions the passing of Chris Benoit. Those in the WWE have basically pretended like Benoit never existed since his death, but Jericho talks about Benoit in his book and only has good things to say about the man he knew, which is not the same one who took the lives of his family and himself.
The part that may interest American wrestling fans is the part of the book where Jericho discusses his progression from ECW to WCW, and ultimately to WWE.
As many would expect, his time in WCW was full of being pushed to the bottom and not given a chance to progress his career. He nearly lost his love for his career, but that was sparked again by his signing with WWE. His debut was one to remember and was one of the best debuts for anyone in the WWE.
*****
This book is extremely well written and is a must-read for any WWE fan or wrestling fan. It is great to get the point of view of the business from someone as experienced as Jericho, and it offers a first person point of view into a business that some may not fully understand.
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