The Evolution of Chris Jericho

When I first heard Chris Jericho was returning to wrestling, way back in the beginning of October 2007, I was excited to say the least. Jericho has been one of my favorites since the very first time I saw him wrestle on WCW's Monday Nitro in 1996. I was bummed when Jericho decided to take a break from wrestling in 2005. I was even more angry that the way it went down was for Jericho to loose to Cena at Summer Slam 05, and the following night the stipulation he must leave WWE if he lost a match. And lost he did. The following night on Raw, I watched with baited breathe hoping that maybe this was just another angle done for ratings and Jericho wasn't going anywhere. But I was wrong and by the end of the night then RAW’s GM Eric Bischoff had "fired" Jericho. As the show came to a close, there was poor Chris Jericho in tears, and disbelieve as Eric ordered security to escort the "former" employee from the building.
The reality of all of this of course was Chris Jericho wanted to take a break from wrestling, as I soon learned, from insiders. The wrestling sites jumped on the story and all claimed, he just wanted to take a break from wrestling and would be back by Jan of 2006. Well here we are, two years past Jan 2006, and one celebrity duet reality show, one book, and multiple VH1 appearances later and we are in the midst of Jericho's second coming.. As a Jericholic myself, I would check out his website and MySpace in the past two years during his hiatus, to see what he was up to. So when I saw that he was doing a book signing tour for his book and that he was going to make an appearance in my hometown of Philly last October, I knew I had to go.

Here it was October 29th 2007, an unseasonably chilly day in Philly and as soon as I heard Chris Jericho on the radio station WMMR stating he was signing his book at the Penn Bookstore in Philly, I knew I had to change all my plans for that day and head down there. After making at least 4 phone calls the plan was set. Along with me was my 11 year old step son Tyler. Just a few years ago he himself got into wrestling. Unfortunately after Jericho had left, so He had never seen him wrestle. All Tyler had was his action figures and a created version of him on his Raw vs. Smackdown video game. Even though he had never saw him wrestle, Tyler was excited about meeting Jericho after all the things I had told him about him. Plus he thought his action figure was cool, which for an 11 year old is as good as an approval you can get.

So there we were my step son and I, with a purchased book waiting for Chris Jericho to arrive. After we hear cheers, we knew he's there and from a distance can see he has entered. It's a Monday night around 5:40pm now. Ok I'll be honest, the real motivation besides meeting one of my favorite wrestlers, was that it was October 29th. Jericho was in Philly and Raw was at the Wachovia Center the same night. You be hard pressed to find anyone that didn't think he was returning that night. What's the coincidence that Chris Jericho would be doing a book signing in Philadelphia from 5:30 to 7pm and Monday Night Raw goes on the air live from the Wachovia Center in Philly at 9pm?
Yep, I was convinced I was going to be a part of history. So as we waited in line, I thought deeply about what I would say to one of my all time favorites. And even more important, how could I get him to admit without admitting he was about to make his return that very

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