Every Chris Jericho Reinvention Ranked From Worst To Best
4. Y2J
Chris Jericho arrived in the WWF, in August 1999, as Y2J: the quintessential Superstar for the new millennium.
And he was a Superstar, even if his new masters attempted to beat it out of him for a few testing months: this version of Jericho wasn't too dissimilar to the man who in WCW anointed himself as the man to destroy the hegemony of the New World Order. With this hyper-arrogant character, Jericho was smart enough to play the long game. His verbal tirades against the white-hot WWF did not endear him to management nor his locker room peers, but he forged what would become a lifelong connection with the biggest audience in wrestling.
To them, Y2J was the platonic ideal of a professional wrestler.
All things to all fans, he carefully (and naturally) drew together everything that popped the main demographic into one incredible persona. He was a catchphrase generator, showman, aerialist, and technician. He intersected the action of the WCW Cruiserweight division and the star power of the WWF's heavyweights in a meticulous, genius approach to character work.
Aspects of it have dated - "Kirk Angel" was never funny - but he was smart enough to leave the persona where it belongs.