15 EXACT Moments Failed WWE Attitude Era Gimmicks Actually Got Over
1. Chris Jericho (April 17, 2000)
This one will probably prove contentious, because many people reckon that Chris Jericho got over huge, immediately, upon his debut.
And he did. Fans were hyped big-time by the Countdown To The Millennium nu-vignette campaign, and the more in-the-know ones knew who was coming - and of his glittering reputation as a charismatic workrate God. Jericho's famous verbal joust with the Rock on the August 9, 1999 Raw Is War is considered an all-time great moment in the history of the flagship - but it was a better pop and entrance than promo. Not all of Jericho's stuff landed. Knowing where he was and what worked there, he went overboard and tried to get one too many catchphrases in.
Ironically, the move up north went south almost immediately, too; Jericho struggled to adjust to the WWF style, and the boiling hot locker room he had pissed off let him know it, either directly or through clandestine backstage politics. Jericho was sloppy and - near-fatal for his particular character - bereft of confidence. He might have won the Intercontinental title for about a month, and worked Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle at WrestleMania, but that match was closer to good than great. The superb matches that were apparently part of the Jericho all-rounder package proved elusive - until he thought he'd captured the WWF Championship from Triple H in an all-timer of a babyface performance and Dusty finish on the April 17, 2000 Raw.
That's what ultimately did it for Jericho; he had finally entered a composed, emotional performance of real quality and substance.