7 Greatest Chris Jericho Title Reigns
1. WWE World Heavyweight Championship (2008)
There are times in the long and illustrious history of WWE where a given Superstar gets on a roll, either in-ring or creatively, and excels at a level he or she had never experienced before.
In 2008, that Superstar was Chris Jericho.
Y2J underwent a drastic character change, leaving behind the braggadocios persona that fans had become so invested in and replacing it with a cold, calculating, dangerous and unforgiving persona straight out of No Country for Old Men.
The result was Jericho's most engaging and acclaimed character.
When he opportunistically captured the World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven, outlasting and outsmarting four other Superstars to leave with Raw's premier prize, he began a reign that may have been short in nature (as were most of his runs with gold) but was brimming with meaty stories and phenomenal main event against Shawn Michaels.
No Mercy that October saw Jericho defeat Michaels in a brutal, violent, tooth-shattering Ladder match that brought their story to a satisfying. It was that match, and the intensification of the story leading to it, that helped make Jericho's world title reign from '08 one of the greatest of his Hall of Fame career.