10 Times WWE Totally Dropped The Ball On Something Hot

6. Y2J, World Champion

WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 Sami Zayn
WWE

Of course, Chris Jericho had World Championship success a total of six times during his time with WWE. Unfortunately, none of those reigns came as a babyface, and in particular the company missed a trick by not strapping up Jericho under his famed Y2J persona.

What makes this even more jarring, the then-WWF had the perfect moment to run with a babyface Jericho with the company's top prize. Heck, WWF gave fans that perfect moment.

That moment? The 17 April 2000 episode of Raw.

In the opening match of that edition of WWF's Monday flagship, Jericho shocked the world by defeating Triple H for the WWF Championship in front of a rabid Bryce Jordan Center crowd.

To this day, Earl Hebner counting the 1-2-3 stands as one of the loudest reactions in Raw history. It's just a shame that this decision would be reversed later in the show, with Triple H forcing Hebner to scratch the match and its result from the record books.

Even though WWF opted to run a fake-out here of Chris Jericho winning the WWF Title, the reaction to Jericho should've told the market leader that fans were eager to see the Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rollah at the top of the mountain. The rivalry between the Game and the Canadian would rumble on across the next few months - complete with an outstanding Last Man Standing war at Fully Loaded - but WWF decided against pulling the trigger on Jericho as the World Champion at that point.

It would take until October 2001 and a heel turn - plus the injury absence of Triple H - for Chris Jericho to get his first taste of World Championship gold.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.