10 Times WWE Picked The RIGHT Wrestler At The WRONG Time
6. Chris Jericho
As Chris Jericho himself admitted in his second biography, Undisputed, his run as the titular Undisputed Champion was an unmitigated disaster. Jericho found himself reduced to Stephanie McMahon's servant while she feuded with his WrestleMania opponent Triple H (yep, him again), resulting in one of the worst WrestleMania builds of all time.
As well as doing far too little with Jericho's run as champion, WWE also left it far too late. The real time to push him had been back in the year 2000, during his first rivalry with HHH.
Despite some atrocious booking in Jericho's first year with WWE (he lost to Gangrel, for Pete's sake), he remained hugely over with the crowd. WWE eventually leaned into that reaction by having Jericho pin HHH for the WWF championship on RAW, albeit only to have the decision overruled later that night. Nonetheless, the young superstar had shown he belonged on the main event scene.
Unfortunately, his opponent that night had other ideas.
Jericho and Triple H ended their first feud on the Fully Loaded PPV, where HHH beat the rising superstar in a Last Man Standing match. It was a cracking match, and it showed why Triple H was 2000's Wrestler of the Year, but it should have been Jericho's night. Had Jericho won, he would have been set as WWE's next megastar. Instead, he had to wait until 2002 until WWE decided he was worthy of holding the company's big belt and...
...well, you know how that turned out.