Revisiting The Accomplishments Of Randy Orton, WWE’s Newest Grand Slam Champion

At Fastlane last night, Randy Orton defeated Bobby Roode for the United States Championship in a surprisingly enjoyable match. During the way less entertaining build to it on Smackdown, much was made about how the U.S. Championship was the only title to have eluded the Viper over his 16-year WWE career.

What wasn’t mentioned until the PPV was that winning this title would make Orton WWE’s 18th Grand Slam Champion, an accomplishment most recently achieved by Roman Reigns back in November.

And the achievement was pretty interesting on a couple of other fronts, too.

Yes, though Orton is a ridiculously decorated WWE superstar, having been WWE Champion nine times, World Heavyweight Champion four times, Royal Rumble winner twice, and the 2013 Mr. Money in the Bank, he didn’t have that specific combination of three singles championships (a primary, secondary and tertiary title under the pre-unification era, or a primary and two secondary under the current WWE title format in place since 2001) plus a tag team championship until last night.

Being a Grand Slam Champion is pretty impressive, so let’s take a move out of Bobby Roode and the Smackdown announce team’s playbook and take a moment to appreciate Randy Orton’s accomplishments.

Under the old title system, Orton won his first primary championship at SummerSlam 2004, when he defeated Chris Benoit to become the youngest ever World Heavyweight Champion at age 24.

If we’re just counting currently existing titles, he scored his first run in the Grand Slam when he beat Triple H for the WWE Championship at No Mercy 2007.

Orton gained his first secondary title, the WWE Intercontinental Championship, at Armageddon 2003 during his “Legend Killer” period. This was a big night for Evolution, with Triple H taking home the World Heavyweight Championship and Ric Flair and Batista winning the tag titles as well.

I was surprised to see when fact-checking this article that this was the only time Orton has ever won the IC Title, but I guess the guy pretty much when straight to the top and stayed there for a decade and a half.

Speaking of the Nature Boy, Orton became a World Tag Team Champion along with Edge (as Rated-RKO) by defeating Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper, the oldest tag team champs in the WWE history, in 2006. And now I just realized the inevitability of Charlotte and Ronda Rousey tagging together, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

Under the current title format, however, the Apex Predator gained first and only tag team title when he and Bray Wyatt defeated Heath Slater and Rhyno for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship at TLC 2016. Man, remember when Heath Slater and Rhyno used to win things? (I mean, not in the video above, but presumably sometime before then for them to have those titles to lose in the first place.)

Orton’s past year has involved bad storylines, weird gimmick matches involving ghost tractors and regionally-specific cages, and a supremely goofy WrestleMania entrance, so it’s nice to see the Viper get a meaningful win. You can’t begrudge a guy a title after a match in which he hit such a textbook superplex, in my opinion, even if his motivations are unsympathetic and his new hair is deeply confusing.

But my favorite Orton moment of the night had to come from his appearance on Talking Smack after Fastlane, when he talked to Renee Young about watching the Raw Talk after the Elimination Chamber: “I got to sit with my kids and watch John Cena cry, and I just want to say thank you for that.” Hard same, Randall! Never change. All hail our new United States Champion and Grand Slam Champion, at least until Jinder takes that first honor from him at Mania.