10 Wrestlers Who Learned Important Lessons The Hard Way

What happens in the ring is only part of being a wrestler. While a bad match can hurt a young talent's prospects, it's what happens behind the curtain that's more likely to impact their career, as a young Chris Jericho learnt to his cost.

In Jericho's second biography, 'Undisputed', Y2J admits that his first year in the WWE was a let-down. Following one of the greatest debuts ever, Jericho's star quickly fell in the months that followed as he became a locker room pariah. Shawn Michaels chewed him out for publicly calling The Undertaker "boring", he tanked his first match with The Rock and he admits he spent way too much time negatively comparing WWE to his old stomping grounds at WCW.

Jericho's nadir came after he inadvertently gave female wrestler Chyna a black eye in one of their bouts. The future demo god was summoned into Vince McMahon's office to find an irate chairman ready to explode. McMahon screamed at Jericho that he was green as grass, his contract wasn't worth the paper it was printed on and that he had to apologise to an openly smirking Chyna there and then.

Fortunately Jericho decided to be proactive about extinguishing the nuclear-level heat he had generated, going straight to Triple H to find out what he was doing wrong. Hunter was admirably honest with him, outlining the problems mentioned above, and Jericho set about mending fences and improving himself as a wrestler and a professional.