About book A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex (2007)
It took me three days to read this biography and a long time to finally get around to read it. As you all know I am a fan of WWE and I have read quite a few books by various wrestlers... So I can say this is the best bio I have read so far.The book talk about his growing up in Canada with an ex major league NHL player as his dad and a wrestling loving grandma, his watching wrestling and wanting to be a wrestler.Chris describes this journey to becoming a wrestler in vivid detail and wrestling in Mexico, Japan and Germany - him getting robbed by a very pretty woman that he thought he might bed and her brother, getting a gun pulled on him twice. The friends he meets such as Lance Storm (before he was famous), Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio JR (also before he was famous). Jericho also likes to take the piss out of himself too.Going through the various names he had such as He-Man (yes, you read that right), Lion Heart and the more well known Jericho. The Chris talks about a wrestler that hated him called Vampirio, Vamp making up bullshit stories about Jericho to try and get him kicked off shows in Japan & Mexico.Jericho working in SMW (in America) to WAR (in Japan) to the very very famous ECW and ultimately WCW. Jericho comes across very honest about his views and hate about WCW (originally I thought it was because this was a book published by WWE so it became custom to slag of WCW - but then I heard other wrestlers from TNA, ECW and smaller promotions say WCW was bad, so they all can't be wrong).The book does mention WWE but this book is about the journey he took to get into the WWE (then WWF), so it stops short of going through the curtain of his WWE debut. There is upset in the book where he talks about his mother. Chri wrote this uncensored so there is a ot of mention about Benoit and strippers in Germany.So what are you waiting for?, you need to read this
A Lion's Tale is the biography of wrestler Chris Jericho, going from childhood to his moments right before walking through the curtain in his WWF debut.Right off, this is the most entertaining wrestling book I've ever read. More entertaining than Foley's two books, more entertaining even than Terry Funk's book. Chris Jericho isn't afraid to poke fun at himself or throw in pop culture references. I laughed out loud a few times at his wordplay.The book itself is a quick read and should be used as the template for most wrestling books. The pre-wrestling stuff doesn't take up much room and the rest is packed with road stories. Chris's journey takes him from wrestling in front of a handful of people in tiny Canadian towns to Mexico, the Smokey mountains, Europe, Japan, ECW, and finally WCW.Unlike a lot of wrestling books, Chris doesn't toot his own horn constantly. In fact, he's not afraid to reveal some things that make him look like kind of a dork. Like not losing his virginity until he was 20, saying dumb things when meeting other wrestlers, or soiling himself after drinking the water in Mexico. He also admits he's had his share of bad matches, like the Super Liger debacle.Jericho spends as much time talking about what happens behind the curtain as he does about the matches, making for an entertaining book. He talks about going out drinking, the difficulties of adjusting to working Japan, and hanging with guys like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.Once he gets to WCW, he focuses on what a disorganized mess the company was and who were jerks backstage, though after reading several other biographies from the same time period, I already knew who they were.If you're a wrestling fan and only want to buy one wrestling book, you could do a lot worse than this one. 4.5 out of 5. Good thing I have Jericho's second book on deck.
Do You like book A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex (2007)?
As a fan of profession wrestling, I really enjoyed it and as a fan of Chris Jericho, I loved it! Jericho's balance of personal, humorous and profession makes this an incredibly good read. It's fascinating to hear about the internal workings of wrestling companies I was too young to experience and wrestlers who ruled the roost long before I was old enough to enjoy it. From America to Japan and all the way back, Jericho takes the time to explain what works, what doesn't as well as how and why, to the point this would be a good read for any non-wrestling fan also! Jericho writes so well, his jokes are your jokes, his frustrations are your frustrations and his losses are your losses! I made sure to buy the two follow ups so I can't wait to move on to them!
—The Honest
I have this urge, to call this the single best pro-wrestling book ever written, but [unfortunately] I myself read only a few of those. Still, it's the best one I laid my filthy little hands on. Chris just hijacks your attention and takes you on a ride of your (or his, to be exact) life. I live a boring existence: a gray apartment, some basic education to stand on and an office job situated in the district of HELL. Basically a recipe for a suicide that's waiting to happen. This guy, on the other hand, illustrates what a roller-coaster of a ride a life of a PW'er is. And not today, when many future "superstars" get a cozy developmental deal with WWE and then travel the world locked in a plane-rental-hotel-arena-home circle. No, Y2J travels the world, developing his craft all around the globe - getting a wrestling bachelors degree in Mexico and then earning his masters in Japan. Making numerous friends and collecting a truck-load of interesting stories in the process. I swear, when I were to look back at my life in 80 years with my sad gray ballsack hanging by my ankles, I will not have 5% of the stories that Chris already has in this book. Fighting off airport security with the beast Haku, having been robbed in Mexico by a girl and being left in the woods... And all of these adventures are presented in such an entertaining way with all of the jokes so fluidly intertwining with the story. No wonder he is one of the greatest promos in the business today. I highly recommend this book to any pro-wrestling fan or simply a fan of great literature, because - guess what - this is GREAT LITERATURE. I swear.
—Artiom Karsiuk
This was a remarkably fun book to read for me. I am 34 years old and haven't watched a wrestling match since I was about 10, but I've seen Chris Jericho on TV (That Metal Show) and found him a likable character.This book really took me back in time. Reading about some of the wrestlers that I grew up watching as a kid was good fun, and the author's humor was fantastic. He depends on a lot of in-jokes, and I suppose if you aren't up to speed on old movies, heavy metal music, and old school wrestling you may be left scratching your head a few times.I would highly recommend this book as a great time killer. You aren't going to become a better person or be able to cure cancer after reading it, but you will find yourself waking up your wife while trying not to laugh, and that is always worthwhile!
—Ryan Jackson
