The 12 months is 1999.

Manchester United is finishing an sudden treble, Spongebob Squarepants was debuting on Nickelodeon to a world of hyperactive youngsters, and Woodstock 99 proved which you can celebration too exhausting.

What a time to be alive.

Within the wrestling world, Vince McMahon’s WWF is firing on all cylinders. The product is on hearth, and a plethora of recent primary occasion wrestlers have emerged within the final 12 months.

The Rock had discovered his groove and is making a declare to be THE man within the firm. Triple H has solid off the shackles of the mid-card and blasted by means of the glass ceiling with a newly discovered sledgehammer. Put them in with the already well-established Undertaker, Steve Austin, and Mick Foley and also you would possibly say issues have been going good.

So good that they might even afford to offer Billy Gunn a singles push.

Issues weren’t all good for Vince, although. Steve Austin’s physique was beginning to break down, Jeff Jarrett was on his manner out the door with the Intercontinental Championship in hand, and the one Union in WWE wasn’t precisely reducing the mustard.

Both manner, it was an thrilling time to be a WWF fan.

One factor I used to like about wrestling in the course of the Monday Night time Struggle period was expertise leaping ship.

Between 1993 and 2001, it was a blast seeing some prime expertise swap from WCW to WWF and vice versa. Sure, at this time we see Jon Moxley gate crash Double or Nothing or watch Cody Rhodes being wheeled out at WrestleMania, however this sort of incidence not often occurred since WCW went Kaput and was so thrilling to look at in real-time.

Again then, I used to be shocked to see The Large, now extra generally referred to as the Massive Present, burst by means of the ring at WWF St. Valentine’s Day Bloodbath. I used to be downright dumbfounded to see the group referred to as the Radicalz flip up on Monday Night time Uncooked with no gown sense in any respect a 12 months later. I used to be additionally left impressed on the re-emergence of Haku on the 2001 Royal Rumble, however they will’t all be winners.

However one bounce stood out for me greater than the remaining: The debut of Chris Jericho.

For me, I knew little or no about Chris Jericho pre-WWF. I knew of WCW’s existence positive, however I had no entry to Nitro or any of its PPVs. I grabbed what data I might from wrestling magazines, however the huge stars like Sting, Goldberg, and all variations of the nWo took the prime actual property in these publications. I had no concept who Chris Jericho was presently, that’s for positive.

That every one modified once I learn an interview with Chris Jericho in 1999 revealed in Energy Slam journal. It was my first copy of the journal I bought, and I used to be hooked. I learn this journal from prime to backside, specifically, I learn this Jericho piece extra instances than was wholesome. It wasn’t simply backstage gossip or third hand information; it was straight from the wrestler’s mouth. It was the primary time I learn any actual non-kayfabe particulars from a wrestler direct.

I used to be captivated by Jericho from bounce. This man wrestled all around the globe, was a member of the Hart Dungeon, and appeared fairly all the way down to earth within the interview. Throw in his distinctive but placing beauty, and I used to be hooked. Jericho was a WCW man. He was trustworthy and upfront about his woes in WCW and the way he was being handled by Eric Bischoff and the WCW machine.

Within the interview, Jericho, like many on the time, of his disillusionment with not being booked higher in WCW and felt he deserved higher. This might turn into a reoccurring theme over the subsequent two years for WCW. Until your final title was Hogan, Corridor or Nash, or some other ex-WWF star for that matter, you wouldn’t be deemed worthy of a push. The very best he bought close to the prime of the cardboard was a short-lived Goldberg feud. Sadly for Jericho, huge Invoice felt this system was beneath him and gave Eric a “this doesn’t work for me, brother” like hissy match as a result of he didn’t do comedy. He was comfortable to put on Goldust’s wig a few years later in WWE, good man Invoice.

In November 1998, Jericho’s WCW contract was expiring, and he was not eager on signing a brand new one simply but. With WCW conscious that he might bounce to Vinceland quickly, they started to characteristic him much less and fewer, to the purpose the place they didn’t promote something he did.

In April 99, Jericho suffered a minor ankle knock and was absent, giving WCW the proper excuse to not e book him. Throughout this downtime, experiences of followers having pro-Jericho indicators faraway from Thunder and Nitro tapings would floor. WCW wished to lower his worth if he did resolve to leap.

On the finish of the interview, with Jericho much more sad at his remedy, he alerts that he’s reluctant to re-sign and teases a WWF transfer. I used to be excited. On the very least, this man appears to be fascinating with a cool look with a ton of confidence.

However an editor replace was on the finish of the interview: “ONE WEEK after the interview, the deal was completed: Chris Jericho has signed a long-term contract with the WWF”.

I used to be delighted and excited.

Coincidentally, not solely was studying this interview my first actual peek behind the kayfabe curtain, however in accordance with Energy Slam creator Findlay Martin, the Jericho interview was their first fully non-kayfabe interview.

However again to 1999, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the “countdown to the brand new millennium” clock started to floor on Uncooked. But the clock wasn’t able to cease on the finish of the 12 months. It was set to finish its countdown on August 9. Jeez, WWF can’t even get their clocks proper.

However this was no mistake, the clock was going to wind down at Uncooked in Chicago. Placing two and two collectively from the July Energy Slam interview, I had hoped it was Jericho, and I used to be ensuring I tuned in on that Friday to see if Jericho would seem. (That’s when Uncooked aired within the UK and Eire)

The day lastly got here, and the present emanated from the molten sizzling Rosemont Horizon simply outdoors Chicago, Illinois. The gang itself confirmed that he was arriving as the ocean of followers was suffering from professional Jericho indicators. Younger Joey was lastly going to see what this Jericho lad was about. I bought goosebumps.

However I had my doubts.

Was he nearly as good as Energy Slam journal made him out to be? They sang his praises in that July version and his confidence on this interview would lead me to imagine that this man is price testing.

And even when he was the subsequent huge factor coming from WCW to WWF, would he be given a reputation change as he couldn’t use the Jericho title in WWF? Would he be topic to a horrible gimmick like Shane Douglas was in 1995? Would he be handled as lower than in comparison with WWF’s homegrown expertise as he got here from the enemy of WCW? Would he be jobbed out to Al Snow in three minutes?

It was all attainable. Vince cherished a foul gimmick. Within the final two years, we had the likes of Beaver Cleavage, The Actual Man’s Man, and Terry Funk in some smelly pantyhose as Chainsaw Charlie. God is aware of what Jericho would find yourself like. And he had a behavior of creating some non-WWF made guys appear like dorks. God is aware of how Vince would first use him.

But it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than the clock appeared on the enormous Titantron video display screen and commenced counting all the way down to zero, as anticipated. What wasn’t anticipated was that this countdown struck its climax in the course of a Rock promo.

Man, the Rock was on hearth at this level. That is going to be one thing. They’re strapping the rocket to this man, proper?

The lights flickered inside the sector, and tense music performed (it’s the previous Hell in a Cell reducing theme). The anticipation for me and the Chicago followers in attendance was at a fever pitch.

Then it stopped, and the lights went out. Silence engulfed the sector.

Then, like lightning hitting the highest of the ramp, a giant pyro blast exploded, and the best of Jericho’s WWE theme performed. That is superior.

A video of a neon-clad night time shot of NYC hit the tron, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the memorable “BREAK THE WALLS DOWN” was yelled within the tune, and an enormous “JERICHO” was unfold throughout the display screen. The gang in Chicago erupted.

He was right here.

A highlight hit because the lights went up, and there he was, in a Jesus Christ pose in a glittery waistcoat together with his again to the gang. The person of the second lifted the mic to his lips and introduced his arrival together with his now acquainted “Welcome to RAW IS JERICHO” catchphrase, a retooling of his WCW Monday Night time Jericho bit.

He spun round and addressed the gang with a ridiculous bobbin splitting his entrance fringe and a foolish little bit of bum fluff caught to his chin for facial hair. However by some means, he made it work.

He regarded particular to me; he appeared vital and distinctive to what WWF sometimes provided. And that’s earlier than you account that he’ll verbally spar with the promo king referred to as The Nice One.

To date, every little thing has been good.

I believed, “Yeah, this man is being seen as vital from the get-go.” Right here he’s getting a top-tier entrance in WWE, being offered as a kick-ass star, and going straight right into a program with the corporate’s prime star. He was a made man already, proper?

However I didn’t understand that he was being set as much as fail.

In hindsight, the promo that adopted, whereas memorable and entertaining to a degree, was nothing loopy. He did foreshadow mediocrity being classed as excellence, one thing modern-day WWE followers appear to embody and coin his new nickname, Y2J wholeheartedly. He had me and everybody within the enviornment hanging on his each phrase.

However sadly, the fact was quickly to hit. Jericho was a lamb to the slaughter.

Jericho was quickly to be verbally eviscerated by The Rock, the undisputed finest promo man wrestling has in all probability ever seen. Rocky destroyed him on the mic whereas Jericho puffed his cheeks and regarded like a goof. And I imply, he DESTROYED HIM. Should you might remodel Mick Foley being chucked off the cell right into a promo, this was it. Rocky metaphorically threw poor Jericho’s debut off the highest of a proverbial cell. BY GOD HE WAS VERBALLY BROKEN IN HALF.

For all his promise and obvious verbal expertise, he was simply one other man coming from WCW to make WWF guys look nice by comparability, not less than at first.

The interplay with WWE’s prime star, and subsequent interference in mentioned stars match later that night, ought to have not less than ensured that Jericho would have been entered right into a program with Rocky going ahead and finally match up in opposition to the Brahma Bull. Sadly, for Jericho, it not solely wasn’t adopted up on however Jericho was relegated to verbal interactions with Highway Dogg and Massive Present earlier than getting into right into a nothing feud with a soon-to-be departing Ken Shamrock.

Jericho would go on to element the debut in his superb 2nd e book, Undisputed:

“It wasn’t what Vince wished from me, regardless that no one ever actually informed me what it was that he did need. On prime of all that, I had this enormous buildup coming into the corporate that left me with a goal on my again larger than Val Venis’s penis. I discovered in a short time that it didn’t matter what I had completed or what my status was outdoors of the WWE partitions, I needed to show myself over again from scratch. And I’d failed spherical one with my goofy reactions to Rocky’s phrases.”

Whereas the debut didn’t precisely work out the way it ought to have gone for Y2J, I’ll always remember the second. I didn’t care; I used to be offered on Jericho from that second.

Yeah, he was set as much as appear like a geek in comparison with The Rock, however you would see that beneath all of the cartoonish facials he was a star and had all of the instruments to reach WWF. He had the celebrity look. He clearly had the mic abilities regardless of being positioned to be killed verbally by The Rock, and going by how he dragged an honest match out of Chyna on the Armageddon PPV later that 12 months, he definitely had abilities. I used to be actually on board as a Jerichoholic.

It was a particular debut, maybe some of the iconic debuts in WWE historical past and one which, 24 years later, I nonetheless fondly bear in mind. Jericho would go on to have many memorable moments in his first WWF run regardless of being a WCW man and is now thought-about one of many biggest wrestlers of all time. And I cherished him from the get-go.

Perhaps it wasn’t the easiest way to debut him in some methods, however this introduction of the Y2J drawback that was Jericho continues to be extremely memorable.