10 Reasons Why Chris Jericho’s Last Run Was His Best Ever
2. New Champion
Chris Jericho's decorated career was short only one significant championship after multiple reigns with the various singles and doubles titles the company have utilised in his 18 year WWE stint.
With his cheap victory over Roman Reigns in a January handicap match with Kevin Owens, Jericho snared his first ever United States title, and would hold onto the belt until his WrestleMania loss against his former ally.
Though kept on 'Y2J' mainly to ensure the two still had a prize to fight over after Goldberg liberated Owens' Universal Title, the secondary strap was elevated by their feud, which regrettably suffered an unnecessary demotion in favour of the Lesnar/Goldberg superclash.
Trading the title ahead of Chris' final farewell, the two stole the show at the troubled Payback pay-per-view in a far superior match to their WrestleMania original that will ultimately be forgotten in the large shadow cast by the 'House of Horrors' disaster between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt.
Owens' possession of the gold has rejuvenated his own career alongside his move to SmackDown Live!, with the 'Face of America' persona likely to propel the prize beyond the WWE Title itself whilst the company experiments with Jinder Mahal et al against Randy Orton.