Undisputed: A Book Review

After having a really, really difficult time finding Chris Jericho’s Undisputed – the sequel to the rightfully much-acclaimed autobiography, A Lion’s Tale – it took me a little over a day to finish it off. I FINALLY found the book on Saturday at about 4 in the afternoon (honestly, I’ve never had so much trouble finding any book ever), and polished it off by midnight on Sunday (going into Monday). AND I went out Saturday night. Suffice it to say, I thought it was a fantastic and well told story of Chris Jericho’s first run in World Wrestling Entertainment.

And I daresay that this book this us greater insight into Chris Jericho the person. One thing that struck me about Undisputed, that I didn’t notice in A Lion’s Tale, was Jericho’s tendency to look positively at bad situations, while reminiscing negatively on his career highlights. For example, he sees the silver lining in his Celebrity Duets experience – despite being the first person eliminated (under seemingly suspicious circumstances). On the other hand, he seems to put a discouraging spin on nearly every single accomplishment he achieved in WWE. And that’s one thing I found in common with Bret Hart’s book. Both Jericho and Hart seem to look back critically at his early WWE career. As a fan looking back at that period, I don’t recall either individual losing that often.

But between Jericho’s incredible debut, his early mic work, and even his WrestleMania encounter with two of the most talented workers in WWE history (Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit), which was contested over two prestigious secondary titles, Jericho doesn’t seem to look back at many moments in a positive light. However, I suspect almost all of that has to do with the fact that Jericho seems to be his own biggest critic – almost to the extent that he’s too hard on himself. For example, even though Edge, Christian, and the Hardyz catapulted following their ladder match at No Mercy, by no stretch of the imagination were they viewed as being at the same level as Chris Jericho. The way Jericho tells it, the four of them had far surpassed him.

Many of the reviews I’ve read noted how harshly he portrays Vince McMahon (he actually falls into the same trap as Foley’s last book – seemingly every significant story about McMahon has him acting like an asshole, yet the author gushes about how much he respects McMahon). That’s probably a fair assessment, as he does discuss more than a few stories in which the boss curses him out or dresses him down, but I think the person portrayed most negatively may be Jericho himself. This is an incredibly honest book. After discussing all of the heat he had during his early run in the company, he takes full responsibility instead of creating conspiracies or blaming others (even though he does call out Triple H on more than one occasion). He also presents himself as an unbearably obnoxious drunk and a bit of a blowhard with violent tendencies. In no way whatsoever does this make him an unlikeable person while reading the story – he just doesn’t seem to hold anything back, even when discussing himself. This was especially true when discussing his DUI. It seemed like he was about to make excuses for his arrest, but instead he acknowledged that he may have had more to drink than he realized, and that it was an incredibly stupid thing to do. He also voices how disappointed he is in himself whenever he submits to the mentality that the show must go on, instead of being with his family during trying times.

Surprisingly, my favorite chapter may have been the one in which Chris discusses his mother’s death. It seems like every wrestling biography contains some sort of crippling grudge that, when viewed objectively, is pretty ridiculous. But Chris Jericho felt a very understandable hatred and bitterness towards the man who was responsible for leaving his mom a quadriplegic. And while many wrestlers aren’t able to free themselves of these grudges, Chris does something spectacularly brave and strong by unconditionally forgiving the man who essentially took his mom from him.

It was also heartbreaking reading about Jericho’s reactions to the deaths of his best friends Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. It was particularly interesting reading his perspective on Benoit, as it may very well be the most personal account we’ve yet heart regarding the double murder/suicide. Through Jericho, we came to understand Benoit’s degradation, as well as his overall bizarre behavior throughout his professional career. It was also pretty devastating reading about how Jericho had a sick feeling in his stomach that Benoit had committed the deed upon hearing the news. What an incredibly upsetting thing to come to realize.

Overall, I would rank this the best wrestling biography since Foley’s first two installments. While A Lion’s Heart told the story of how Chris Jericho got to WWE, I feel like Undisputed allowed us to get to know Chris Jericho. His interests, his ambitions, his successes and failures. He’s incredibly honest – unlike Foley in Lockdown, he isn’t afraid to name names and actually gives the details behind dramatic situations – but doesn’t come across as bitter or egotistical. On the contrary, he’s incredibly likeable, and you really come to respect him for his willingness to stand up for himself and what he believes in. I mean, how many people can tell Vince to eff off right to his face, only for the Mac daddy to pat him on the back for saying it?

Absolutely, most definitely worth a read. And hey, here’s a link to make that happen!