10 Superstars WCW Completely Wasted

Chris Jericho took a similar early career to Eddie Guerrero. Not imagining someone of his stature would ever make it in the size-obsessed world of either WCW or the WWF, Jericho instead focused on getting booked around the world, especially Mexico and Japan.

After wowing in FMW and WAR in Japan, as well as Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling in Kentucky, Y2J got booked with ECW, where he had more reputation-enhancing matches. Eventually, he got the call from Eric Bischoff and WCW, who were interested in having Jericho be a part of their cruiserweight division.

The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla debuted as a goody-two-shoes, smiling babyface on the August 26th 1996 episode of Nitro, battling to an uninspired double countout with the equally colourless Alex Wright. Jericho was so goody-goody that he refused to take a win by countout in his first ever match, joining his fallen foe at ringside so that they would be even and both lose.

In a post-nWo climate, this would just not do, and Jericho's act failed to get over. It didn't matter how many good matches he had or how hard he worked, his character was straight out of the 1980s. And he knew it. Despite Bischoff thinking that Jericho had the potential to be the next Sting, the man himself knew he had to turn heel post-haste.

He did so in 1998 and immediately reaped the benefits. Apathy was replaced by a shower of jeers, music to the Canadian's ears. He was having fun, whether it was winding up Dean Malenko, unmasking Juventud Guerrera or claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy theorist.

A self-made programme with Goldberg got over, but Da Man and top WCW brass were against it. Jericho famously wanted to blow it off on pay-per-view, but Goldberg refused. This was a wakeup call to Jericho, who realised he was actively being held back. He continued plugging away, making chicken salad out of chicken sh*t before departing for the promised land of the WWF in 1999.