A Lion's Tale

A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex is an autobiography of professional wrestler Chris Jericho. It details his life from his early years, to his début for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), on August 9, 1999. The book is followed by a sequel, Undisputed: How to Become World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, which was released in 2011. A second sequel, Best in the World (At What I Have No Idea), was released in 2014. History Jericho started writing A Lion's Tale shortly after leaving the WWE, in August 2005. For the purposes of the book, which mainly detail his life from 1990–1999, WWE is referred to as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as this was the name of the company when Jericho made his début. The World Wrestling Federation changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002. Content The book begins with a quick account of Jericho's thoughts whilst making his now-trademark countdown entrance during his WWF début. The book then flashes back to his early years, as a seven-year-old growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Jericho discusses his first exposure to professional wrestling, watching it on a TV in his grandmother's basement. He would later attend American Wrestling Association (AWA) live events at the Winnipeg Arena with his father, former professional ice hockey left winger, Ted Irvine, before being replaced in 1983, by the World Wrestling Federation. As he reached his teens, Jericho would later engage with WWF wrestlers, who would be staying at nearby hotels, when performing in the Winnipeg area. Jericho would later emulate the actions of WWF superstars with friends, in his promotion, the Big Time Wrestling Federation (BTWF). Jericho later recalls the first time he saw Stampede Wrestling, a wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta, on television in 1986. Jericho states it was shortly after this time that this was when his path (to becoming a professional wrestler) became written in stone, as he watched Owen Hart, (who was of a similar build) perform his entrance. It was whilst watching a Stampede show, that Jericho (then seventeen years old) saw an advert for the Hart Brothers Pro Wrestling Camp. Jericho promptly wrote to the address on the screen, hoping to enroll. A few weeks later, he received a reply from Ed Langley, the Hart Brothers Camp representative, who stated that Jericho needed to be eighteen years old and meet the weight classification of around .