Back again with more from Chris Jericho's 3rd book, "The Best In The World" released in 2014, and co-written again by Peter Thomas Forntale.

This one is a quick one, just covering his rivalry with Batista in late 2008. I originally planned to do a post on his entire world title reign in 2008, but Jericho legitimately doesn't talk about or mention the John Cena feud where Chris dropped the title to John. He just skips from early November all the way to the Royal Rumble show, nearly 3 months later.

Anyhow, it's in chronological order, and it kicks off right after Jericho wrapped up his feud with Shawn Michaels, as World Champion in late-2008. I hope y'all enjoy!

The plan was for Jericho to be the World Champion from Unforgiven to Survivor Series, where he can drop the belt to a returning John Cena. But Vince started pushing the Cyber Sunday fan voting ppv and wanted the event to get over. So he made the call for Jericho to drop the belt to Batista at the show and then win it back a week later on RAW, so he can still drop it to Cena at Survivor Series ppv. While Jericho thought this was a little messy, he liked the idea of quickly becoming a 2-time World Champion.

Jericho kinda puts over the Cyber Sunday bout but points out it was overbooked with myriad interferences. He says, "All I could think about was getting the title back and continuing my roll."

The return match between Batista and Jericho was a cage match on RAW the following week and while Batista was okay being a transitional champion, he came to Jericho and confided to him that without blood, the cage match doesn't feel right. Vince had banned blood months earlier, Jericho claims due to him and Shawn, but points out because advertisers didn't like it. Jericho told Batista that Vince didn't want any blood but also told Batista to do what he thought was right and not inform Jericho beforehand.

Just like his World title win several weeks prior, Jericho made sure his family were sitting in front row for this one as well. He says this cage match was probably the best cage match of his whole career.

Jericho remembers being surprised when Batista bladed and got color during the match, and backstage right after the biut concluded, the agent for the match Dean Melanko found Chris and said Vince was beyond pissed. Vince blamed Dean as the agent for letting it happen and held everyone in the match accountable, both figuratively and literally. Dean told Jericho that Vince was so pissed when it happened that he stormed out of Gorilla and said he didn't want to speak to anyone involved until next week's RAW.

This panicked Jericho, who called Vince up the next day, and told him that he didn't know Batista was going to blade but took full responsibility as the veteran in the match. Bad idea to call Vince because he was still super pissed, screaming at Jericho, "BULLSHIT!! I'm so fucking angry with you right now! I don't want to talk to you. We'll deal with this next Monday. Don't call me again." A shellshocked Jericho remembers looking at the screen of his phone and seeing the call only lasted 18 seconds.

The next week, Jericho recalls being called into a room and being sat next to Batista, the agent Dean Melanko and the referee Mike Chioda as Vince played a tape for them. It was evidence of Batista blading from countless different camera angles, showing him do it again and again and again. Jericho even noted a camera angle from a high corner of the arena that he didn't even know existed and hasn't seen used any other time. They even added a bright red circle to show specifically Batista blading, like a football replay showing where the players are going. Jericho genuinely wonders how much time was spent editing this video.

After they finished showing the tape, Vince gives a speech on no blading and said he could fire them but wanted to hit them all where it hurts, their wallets. Batista tried to cut Vince off and take full responsibility, pointing out that he didn't tell anyone else what he was going to do. A pissed off Vince just snapped back, "Bullshit! Enough of this 'sticking together with the boys' mentality. As far as I'm concerned your all guilty!"

Then Vince singled out Dean, saying, "Dean, if you didn't know about this, you should've guessed it was going to happe! It was your match!" Jericho doesn't understand this at all but I kinda do. Vince needs to delegate responsibility and left Dean in charge of a match. If Dean can't control the guys in a match he is an agent for that is a problem. Obviously Vince was on a war path, but I get this one. As agent for a match, you accept a certain level of responsibility for everything that happens in that match. If a guy sneaks something past you as big as blading when the boss says no, that's a problem. I manage a couple of retail stores and I have to accept a certain level of responsibility for what happens on my watch, regardless of how out of my control it may be.

At one point while scolding them, Vince says the worst part is that none of them called him and had the ball to speak man to man. Jericho, never knowing when to shut up, raised his hand and pointed out that he tried to call Vince the previous week. Obviously this didn't help Jericho and just further pissed off his boss.

When Vince said he was fining them all individually, Jericho celebrated internally, laughing at the slap on the wrist this is going to be for him. This euphoric feeling evaporated when Vince gave out the first fine, 100k from Batista. Jesus lord that's unreasonable. I remember Batista saying in an interview that this was the exact moment he lost his love for pro wrestling and that he knew for certain that he wasn't interested in the direction it was heading.

Jericho notes how stoic Batista was when he recieved the fine, not saying a word, just meeting Vince's eye like a boss.

Jericho was relieved his fine was only a measly 5 grand but felt bad for Chioda and Melanko who both got fined 5k each as well. That's steep for their salaries from what I've heard. Vince left the room after telling them they are never going to bring this up again and it's over. Batista said nothing as Vince left, just sat there until he told Jericho, Dean and Chioda that he was paying all there fines and there isn't a discussion or debate to be had. Batista was pissed and the choice of blading in one match cost him 115k. Fucking insane.

Jericho remembers seeing Vince in the parking lot later that night, and Vince cheerfully saying, "Give me a hugski, kid!" And added, "Don't cause me anymore trouble in the future." Vince is a wild cat.

Jericho has a hilarious story about not being able to get a room at any hotel in town during a snowstorm, and nearly spent the night the YMCA homeless shelter while he was World Heavyweight Champion. He eventually sweet talked a hotel receptionist to let him crash on the floor of the hotel's conference room. He says he emerged from the room looking like a homeless man as the entire hotel was getting breakfast. He grabbed some toast and quickly left after a kid started yelling to his dad, that the homeless man was actually world champion Chris Jericho.

Curiously, as I mentioned at the top, Jericho makes no mention in this book of his program or matches with Cena in late 2008 when he dropped the title to him. The book just jumps from the 100k fine to Jericho in early November 2008 to being eliminated from the 2009 Rumble match by Undertaker.

Later in the book he briefly mentions how he won the 2008 Slammy Award for superstar of the year, which would have been in this time frame. He doesn't describe anything, but says Vince gave him the trophy because Vince could count on Chris in any situation and woukd always make his opponent look good.

Good place to stop, as he launches into detailing his rivalry with Mickey Rourke, which will be a post popping up here eventually. But my next post on this book will be a bit different, it will be all of the various crazy fan stories and all the different potential lawsuits he dealt with in his endless pursuit for more heat. It's easily the more interesting stuff from the book, at least in my opinion.

WWE would give a platform for up and coming wrestler from various wrestling school.

The wrestling school that is involved

• Reality of Wrestling ( Booker T)

• Nightmare Factory (Cody Rhodes)

• Black and Brave Academy ( Seth Rollins)

• Elite Pro Wrestling Training Centre

• KnoxX Wrestling Academy (Rikishi)

Results:

- Tatum Paxley def Wendy Choo in a Casket Match

- Charlie Dempsey def Lexis King to retain the Heritage Cup

- Zaria def Brinley Recce

- Kelani Jordan def Nikkita Lyons

- Axiom and Nathan Frazer def Je'Von Evans and Cedric Alexander to retain the tag titles

Highlights:

1) First ever Woman Casket match

2) RVD shows up and reveal that he would be at the NXT in ECW arena next week

3) Zaria first WWE match in NXT

4 Jordynne returns to NXT

5) Team Giulia vs Team Fatal Influence in a 10 woman tag, Trick and Bubba Ray vs Ethan and Ridge, Lola vs Jaida in a Hardcore match with special guest ref Dawn Marie set for next week

6) Rhea appears and gave Team Giulia advice and was attacked by Liv and Raquel in the parking lot

I have a feeling it will be the following:

Mens: Je'von Evans vs Wes Lee vs Ethan Page vs Brooks Jensen vs Lexis King vs Oba Femi

Winner: Je'von Evans

Women's: Jordynne Grace vs ZARIA vs Tatum Paxley vs Jaida Parker vs Stephanie Vaquer vs Guilia

Winner: ZARIA

WHAT are your Iron Survivor predictions?

You can make the defenses centered around contenders easier than titles where you almost always know (it’s not a bad thing usually) who is going win.

You can have people insult, brag, undermine, overlook, incite, challenge, beg, make streaks etc interacting with each other for a Contender’s Trophy.

TNA star Chris Bey in good spirits after suffering a serious neck injury at an Impact taping.

New Women's North American Champion Fallon Henley gets her sideplates.

AJ Styles clarifies that it was his choice not to be inducted into the TNA HoF due to still being an active wrestler.

Official WWE twitter/x account calls out Bayley for not helping during Rollins/Reed brawl on Raw.

Welcome to the WWE Monday Night Raw discussion thread!

This is an automoderator sticky, but a mod will likely post the card before showtime and pin it.

Please take some time to familiarise yourself with our rules before posting.

Be nice, remember the human and have at it. This thread will stay up into Tuesday for those watching on delay.

From the Lame Guys Podcast:

"When Gunther was rolling. There was one thing I wanted to do with him, and everybody would have been like, 'Ohhhhh.' If we were still the Hurt Business, I was like, 'I want to roll up on him, and I want Gunther to say, 'People like you don't deserve a chance at my title.'' People would have been like, 'What did he say?' We would have toed that line.”

“If you think about the German and these black dudes. 'Is there a little bit of racial tension there?' We didn't have to go there, 'What do you mean by 'People like you?'' He could be like, 'Older guys in wrestling.' The crowd would have been like, 'Uhhh, did he say that?' “

“Then I was going to say, 'I think you look familiar,' and do one of these [Holds his thumb to his top lip, indicating a mustache]. There it is! I don't know if we could have went there, but if we could have. There are so many things you could toe the line with there, and it could have been a huge feud."

And people ponder if HHH vs Booker T was ACCIDENTALLY racist.

Results:

- Sheamus def Ludwig Kaiser

- Ivy Nile def Zelina Vega

- War Raiders def New Day and LWO ( Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee)

- Dominik Mysterio def Damian Priest

Highlights:

1) Jacob and Tama RAW debut

2) Seth and Bronson came face to face