10 Most Epic WWE Debuts Ever

Despite earning a reputation for being one of the most technically proficient wrestlers in the world during his tenure in Japan and World Championship Wrestling, it wasn't until Chris Jericho appeared in WWF that he became a worldwide sensation. His debut is one of the most memorable and electrifying of all time, a perfect blend of showmanship, real life issues, and good old fashioned trash talking.

As The Rock promised to check Big Show into the SmackDown Hotel, he was cut off by a now all-too-familiar sound, accompanied by a 'Countdown to the Millennium'. Playing on real life fears surrounding the Y2K virus, Jericho labelled himself as "the New Millennium for the World Wrestling Federation", blowing kisses to the fans as the stadium erupted into deafening cheers. Y2J promised a "new era" for the WWF, slamming the company as cliched and boring, espousing sentiments that fans would echo a decade later.

There's so much to this debut and its subsequent promo that it's impossible to fully do it justice in so few words. To try and sum things up concisely: this was the first time WWE fans heard "break the walls down", as well as Jericho's fantastic delivery of the word "idiot", and it served as a rare and early example of a superstar pulling back the pro-wrestling curtain in order to elicit a response from the crowd.

Despite debuting with one of the oddest hairstyles imaginable, a godawful soul patch beard, and a sparkly jacket, Jericho was instantly over, and was lauded by fans in attendance even as he called them idiots.