Report courtesy of Zane Andres and ProWrestling.net …
We were kept waiting for about 20 minutes (he was scheduled to appear at 1:00 p.m.), and some in the crowd were a little unimpressed to say the least at his tardiness. Before the signing, the workers were having a trivia contest where people would come up with questions about Jericho and if someone answered they would get a Chapters Gift Card, and if no one was able to answer, the person who asked the question would receive the gift card. They were only focusing on the front of the line so when they asked “What was Jericho’s first major U.S. Title,” I got the bright idea of getting my phone out and repeatedly twittering the answer to the store. It worked.
Jericho came out to some music, though I figured they would play his entrance music. No big introductions. He just took the mic and said hello, said this was the best bookstore because they played music for his entrance. When Mick Foley came last October, he made a little speech and played to the crowd a bit, but it was straight to business for Jericho, which I was a little let down by.
It was pretty basic, he’d sign your book and one piece of merchandise, then pose for a photo. You had to purchase the book at the store, which was a problem for me as I got a review copy for Wrestling101.com, but they accepted the invoice as proof of purchase. Any interaction was basically whatever small talk you could make in that time frame. I had an old Chris Jericho, “You’re the best Valentine’s EEEEEEEEVER!” card that he signed and was surprised to see because they were about 10 years old.
At one point, the music that was playing in the background started playing some piano music that you’d probably hear at a fancy restaurant. Jericho got up and ripped the cord that was connecting the computer to the sound system out, and yelled to us, “I feel like I’m at a funeral parlor,” which got a laugh out of the crowd. All in all, he was friendly and if he’s doing a book signing near you I advise going. The MC also mentioned Smith Hart (Bret Hart’s brother) being there, but I didn’t see him.
