Chris Jericho’s fourth book, No Is A Four Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling but Succeeded in Life, was released on August 28th. It is different than Jericho’s first three books, because this is less of a memoir, and more of a a motivational book, while also providing insight into Jericho’s successful life as one of the greatest WWE Superstars ever and a rock star as the frontman of Fozzy.
It’s an enjoyable read that uses 20 principles that Jericho has picked up during his life. As he states early in the book, when he was a kid he had a goal to be a professional wrestler and also a singer in a band. When he told people that they doubted him most of his life, but he’s been wrestling at a high level for over 25 years and his rock band Fozzy is doing very well while performing with great bands. Obviously, he’s more known for being a wrestler, but as he states in the book they’ve got to open for the likes of Metallica before, so that’s pretty good.
The twenty principles in the book are based on things Jericho has learned from various people in his life (or that he’s a fan of) ranging from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, his father Ted Irvine, Steve Austin, Madonna and even Yoda. All of them offer up something different with Jericho using examples from his life when he utilized those principles.
Jericho’s three previous autobiographical books are fantastic. The first one is called A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex and was released in 2007. It was about his life leading up to his WWE debut in 1999. The second book, Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps The third one, The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea, ended with his return to WWE at the 2013 Royal Rumble, which was a night when he got one of the biggest pops of his career.
Throughout this latest book, Jericho told stories about meeting various people in the entertainment business, including the musicscene . What’s great about that is you can tell that Jericho is just a regular guy that would mark out (had to use a wrestling term) when he got the chance to meet the likes of Paul McCartney, and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, the latter of whom became a friend of Jericho’s and also wrote the foreword in the book.
Out of all the stories in the book, the funniest one is when he met Yoko Ono, the wife of musical legend John Lennon. It’s not something that I’m going to spoil in this review, but it had me laughing my ass off, which is why reading Jericho’s books are a lot of fun because he has a lot of funny stories. Jericho does an excellent job of painting the image for us. That’s a strength of his in all of his books – he knows how to tell entertaining stories. It would be hilarious to see him act out that story in person.
There are a lot of cool wrestling stories in the book as well. In previous Jericho books, he went into detail about how he would come up with a storyline and everything that went into planning it. There’s plenty of that in here as well as he shared some details about feuds with the likes of Fandango (a Vince McMahon storyline idea), AJ Styles (remember those Y2AJ shirts?) and also that Dean Ambrose feud in 2016 that led to that Asylum Match that wasn’t well received.
A highlight of the last two Jericho books were stories of his interactions with Vince McMahon. To a lot of us, Vince may come off as a cranky egomaniac that drives the WWE ship to the best of his ability, but Jericho’s stories tend to show a softer side. While there are plenty of instances where Vince was tough on Chris, but as Chris as let us know over the years they have a close relationship because Chris has earned Vince’s trust. There are plenty of Vince stories in this book that you won’t read anywhere else and they should satisfy the most hardcore of wrestling fans.
There are more than just wrestling and music stories in the book. There’s an interesting tale about how Jericho nearly became the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, but was passed up for a guy in a 1990s sitcom that hasn’t done much since. They should have given it to you, Chris!
The last chapter (and principle) provides an insight into Jericho the wrestling character. He broke down in detail what his mindset was when he went through his many tweaks to his character. It gives the reader an appreciation for how much he loves the wrestling business as well as how hard he tries to keep people guessing. That chapter is something every wrestler should read because a lot of them become stale after doing the same thing for so many years. Jericho is one of the best wrestlers ever in terms of changing things up, so it would be wise for any wannabe wrestling to read and even current guys in WWE, too.
The title of the book comes from the idea that “no” is bad word in Jericho’s world. When people told him no in his life, he used it as a motivator to prove that he could be successful. Jericho has become a huge success while also remaining humble from where he started and the chances are good it will motivate you to go on a path of success as well.
Jericho’s honesty, sense of humor and attention to details makes No Is A Four Letter Word another rousing success in the “Books of Jericho.” Read ‘em all, man!
I strongly recommend this book.
You can order No Is A Four Letter Word on Amazon today or pick it up at your local book store.
