12 Times WWE Buried Their Own Champions

Remember that cutting line from the intro? 'Business must be in the toilet if we're putting the belt on ***insert wrestler here***'. That wasn't word for word what Vince McMahon said to The Undertaker in front of Chris Jericho backstage, but it's eerily close. Jericho wrote about how embarrassed he felt about this conversation in one of his books.

McMahon was referring to booking plans that'd see Jericho beat both The Rock and Steve Austin on the same night at Vengeance 2001. It was hardly a vote of confidence. He was likely ribbing 'Y2J' as hard as he could in front of a respected veteran, but it was a knee-knocking wobble for the champ to be. He knew ahead of time that the boss didn't have faith in him to succeed.

Great.

That feeling of uselessness persisted throughout Jericho’s stint on top until he dropped the title to Triple H at WrestleMania X8. As champ, he was never allowed to look like Hunter’s equal, and Jericho actually played second fiddle behind Stephanie McMahon during the feud. Her issues with Trips were far more important to creative/Vince than anything else.

Here's something: If the World Title match had to go on last at 'Mania X8 to protect the belt's legacy (ahead of The Rock vs. Hollywood Hogan), then why didn't they make the actual bloody story surrounding that headliner more of an ongoing concern?! Instead, 'Y2J' looked like a midcarder playing pretend atop the throne. He wasn't even the main obstacle Triple H had to overcome. Stephanie was.

Making Jericho look like a joke backstage and in front of the cameras was some call.