Undisputed: How to Become a World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps

Non-Fiction Review by C. Allen Thompson

What can I say about Chris Jericho, or his work, that hasn’t already been said?  For that matter, what can I say about Chris Jericho that I haven’t already said?

In Undisputed: How to Become a World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, Jericho starts exactly where he left off in his previous memoir A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex, which is another book I strongly recommend.  Jericho guides us through the journey of his first run in the World Wrestling Federation, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, to the kick-start of his music career with his band Fozzy (Jericho playing the character of Moongoose McQueen alongside members of the cult favorite Stuck Mojo) all the way back to his return to WWE, which many argue was as triumphant and entertaining as the first.

One thing I must stress is that you do not have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy Chris Jericho’s books.  In fact, it almost helps if you’re not, because of you were to start off as a wrestling fan, by the end of the book, you may question why you enjoy such a cold-hearted and brutal business.  This is a business that is so cut-throat that it is still run almost exactly as it was in the 1920’s when professional wrestling was nothing more than a carnival act.  Now, sports entertainment is Hollywood, it is mainstream, and it is everywhere, but behind the glitz and glamour, the bright lights and pyrotechnics, it is still, at its heart, a business that will chew you up and spit you out even faster than Hollywood.  That is something from which no amount of in-ring choreography, safety precautions, or wellness policies can save you.  But I digress.

Jericho’s writing style is extremely entertaining, as it ought to be.  Chris is a man with a long history of comedy, not only in wrestling, but also in more mainstream entertainment systems, including being a member of the world famous Groundlings comedy troupe.  His way with words really tends to transcend any wrestlers before him, including a personal favorite of mine, Mick Foley.  A man that Jericho reminds us again and again, throughout both of his books, has never beaten him.  Although, keep in mind, this is purely in jest, as Jericho is also one of the only pro-wrestling authors I’ve read who actually goes out of his way not to bury others.  I cannot say the same for such other vindictive and bury-happy authors as Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan.

This book will have you laughing, sighing, crying, then laughing again, and this cycle repeats itself throughout just about every chapter.  If you are weak of heart, I may suggest you skip any page that reads the name Chris Benoit.  I’m not weak of heart in the slightest, but Chris Jericho brought tears to my eyes three times in this book, as Chris experienced the death of his mother and several of his best friends over the course of the couple of years that are covered in this book.  One of those was, indeed, Chris Benoit, who I’m sure most of you are familiar with, unless you spent all of 2008 under a rock.

Final summation: Chris Jericho is one of two authors to actually leave me in a very uncomfortable position.  This was the fact that I picked his book up one morning, and before I knew it, I was flipping the last page the following morning.  I hadn’t showered, shaved, or eaten in 20 hours, and I swear I had bed sores.  Only one other author has done this to me, and that is Aldous Huxley, who Chris actually mentions in this book.  Huxley did it once, and Jericho has now done it twice.  I look forward to round three of the Chris Jericho memoirs, as well as treating the bed sores that I already know it’s going to inflict upon me.

This is a very, very easy five-star book in Nerd Factor and a four-star book for General Reading.