And his return in 2007 - the "Second Coming" - also on Raw.
Jericho did it AGAIN, as he has been relevaled to be the one behind the "It begins" videos that popped up on RAW at 2011's end.
Jericho beating Austin and Rock in the same night in back-to-back matches to become the first WWE Undisputed Champion, which to this day is often used as a Remember When You Blew Up a Sun? reference.
Jericho would also beat both men at the next two PPV's: Rock at the Royal Rumble and Austin at No Way Out. It took God Mode SueTriple H to beat him at Wrestlemania
A real life CMOA was his series of CNN interviews following Chris Benoit's murder-suicide, during which he acted as an intelligent and well-spoken ambassador for pro wrestling, correcting a lot of Nancy Grace's Critical Research Failures.
Established himself as a Badass backstage after trapping Goldberg in a front face lock. (Reports differ as to how long Jericho had Goldberg in the hold, and whether he let it go on his own, was pulled off by other wrestlers/security, or Goldberg broke out of it)
In 2000, a weekly occurrence on Raw & SmackDown was Jericho insulting Stephanie McMahon for no other reason than he found it funny. Eventually, Triple H got sick of Jericho insulting his wife, so Jericho goaded him into a WWE championship match. And won. Granted, Triple H forced the referee to reverse the decision before the end of the show, but the moment the referee counted three? Just watch the crowd reaction.
When winning the Undisputed Championship in 2001, Jericho became one of eleven "Grand Slam Champions", meaning he was at different points in his career a WWE Champion, a World Tag Team Champion, an Intercontinental champion, and a European Champion. As time went on, the WWE started to recognize World Heavyweight Championship, Hardcore Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship reigns as part of the Grand Slam (ex. the Hardcore Title substitutes for the European, WHC for WWE Title, etc.). In 2009 (by winning the WWE Tag Team title with Edge), Jericho became the only man in the company's history to hold every single title in the Grand Slam, and because the Hardcore, European, and World Tag Team titles are inactive, no one else will ever have that distinction.
The latest Grand Slam Champion, Christian, could since he already won all the defunct titles but he'd have to win the WWE Championship and WWE Tag Team belts. As it stands, Jericho is only the man with that distinction and, chances are, will remain that way.
Jericho has generally had great difficulty against both John Cena and Triple H, but this sequence, in which he pinned Cena, put him in the Walls of Jericho and then hit a Codebreaker on Triple H, was a fantastic Two Minutes of Awesome for Jericho. (Granted, he had The Big Show helping him, but still).
Chris Jericho holds the record for most Intercontinental championship reigns, 9 separate reigns as of June 7, 2009. To put that in perspective, the next highest number of IC title reigns is 6, shared by Jeff Jarrett and Rob Van Dam, neither of whom will probably ever be in a WWE ring ever again(for various reasons), much less be IC champ again.