10 Greatest Debut Years In WWE History

Sometimes WWE hype up an incoming character only for the result to be the Gobbledy Gooker. Other times, it’s Chris Jericho. An oh-so-1999 millennium clock counted down over weeks, before August of that year saw Y2J emerge in the strongest possible manner. He interrupted a promo by The Rock, and went line for line with the Great One.

Momentum thusly seized, Jericho swiftly gained the Intercontinental title, which he traded with Chyna for a while, He did an admirable job bringing the fairly green star up, and soon established himself as an upper-midcard powerhouse.

Luckily, Jericho had some talent of similar stature to work with, in the shape of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. The two were matched up every which way over the year, stealing WrestleMania 2000 in a two-out-of-three falls match.

It’s even possible to argue that Jericho could have been pushed yet further in his first year. He was awarded a WWF Title win over Triple H, only for this to be rescinded, but the crowd response when the fans thought Jericho had done it tells the whole story. While he’d have better rivalries elsewhere, this brash, motormouth tweener character remains one of the best in Jericho’s rogue’s gallery of gimmicks.