Undisputed by Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho's first book, A Lion's Tale, is considered by most to be one of the greatest autobiographies by a professional wrestler. His second autobiography has lofty expectations and they were reached in a book that is comparable to his first one. His storytelling abilities and personality shine through in this book just as they did in his first one. Just like the Priest/Maiden debate he took part in with Axl Rose that he writes about in this book, wrestling fans will be debating whether Undisputed or A Lion's Tale is the better Chris Jericho autobiography.

Chris Jericho's first book ended with the Y2J clock counting down to zero and this one starts off with him entering the arena and getting into it with the Rock. While fans thought this was a great moment, you'll be shocked to find out what Chris thought about the moment. The first part of the book deals with the problems he had adjusting to the WWE style and some amazing stories about the backstage dealings he had with Vince McMahon, Triple H, and Chyna.

Things eventually got better for Chris in the company but not everything was as great behind-the-scenes as he writes about being taken out of one WrestleMania main event and feeling short-changed by his check for another one.

While Chris was on top of the world in the sport of wrestling, he also had an ambition to be a rock star. Chris devotes a significant portion of this book to his work with Fozzy. Some of the stories he told dealing with that world were even more bizarre and entertaining than his crazy stories while working in the minor leagues of wrestling in his first book.

In the midst of his many light-hearted and humorous stories, the book took two surprising turns. The first was when he spoke about the death of his mother and dealing with the man that caused her to be paralyzed. The other was when he discussed the death of his good friend, Chris Benoit. I think that his reactions and current feelings about Chris and his exclusion from WWE DVDs might shock you.

This book ends similar to how his first one did. After several weeks of strange codes showing up on WWE television, the clock counts down to zero and the book concludes. If you were looking forward to stories from Chris Jericho's most recent run in the WWE, you won't find them here. So if you want to know about his inspiration for his recent heel character with the slow talking and fancy clothes, you will have to either wait for his third autobiography or check out his recently released DVD.

Overall Recommendation: Just like his first book, this book belongs in your wrestling library. As to how it compares to his first one, in some ways I liked this one better than his first one and vice-versa. I liked the first one better in that the book told the story of a man trying to accomplish his dreams and overcame many bizarre situations to get there. On the other hand, there are some chapters and stories in this book that blow away the best parts of the first book. If you haven't bought either book yet, I'd buy the first one first because you can get the soft-cover book cheaper and it gives you an understanding of where Chris Jericho came from to get to the second book. However, if you are a newer fan that is only familiar with his work in the WWE, you will probably enjoy this book better because of your familiarity with the subject.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.