10 Wrestling Moments That Made You Mark Out

10. Chris Jericho Steals The WWE Championship

In what still goes down as one of the greatest Monday Night Raw moments ever (for me, anyway) the near untouchable Triple H lost the WWF Championship to fan-favourite/bothersome mid-carder Chris Jericho. This, simply, was beyond the realms of possibility.

It wasn't clean - WWE was at pains to protect Hunter even back then - and after clocking the champ with his own belt and benefitting from a fast count, referee Earl Hebner stripped him later in the night and reversed the decision. A whopping anti-climax but not one that has ever diluted the pure elation of the moment itself. Honestly, go back and watch this segment and try and imagine how much better wrestling would be today with a crowd as hot as that.

The thing about this, is there's an established pecking order in wrestling when it comes to the top titles, and it's one that is virtually never, ever broken. It's booking 101 to ensure that The Big One is passed around as carefully as possible, and when someone's about to break out of the pack it's often telegraphed months in advance. They usually need a Rumble win, or an underdog PPV narrative, never in a shock victory on an otherwise unremarkable night of TV.

To simultaneously give a crowd something they want so badly, but still catch them completely off guard, is something hardly ever seen in WWE either before or since.