Triple Crown in the WWE

[JT]

Well this is probably the first part of some future rants about wrestling championships, but feel like starting here...

Was looking at Wikipedia's record of WWE Triple Crown winners (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_Championship), and notice something interesting. It seems to be a Triple Crown winner, you could win either set of World Championships or Tag Team Championships, but only considers IC Champions and not US Champions. Granted, this is also Wikipedia mentioned here so it's not like it's an offical thing, and with the devalue of championships it probably doesn't matter anyway.

However, I think if you can mix and match both top-tier and tag belts for this award, 2nd-tiers should both be counted as well.

[XL]

Personally I don't consider anyone that has won a "Triple Crown"/"Grand Slam" as such since the introduction of more titles/more brands.

Back in the day it was impressive to have won the World, IC and Tag Titles. Then they added the Euro belt and you became a Grand Slam winner if you picked that one up too.

Since then we've had a Hardcore title, the introduction of the US, World Heavyweight, WWE Tag Team, ECW and whatever belts I've probably missed.

I guess the only thing that would be truly impressive nowadays is to have held each available belt at any given time. I think Edge is probably the nearest to accomplishing this.

Like you say, to consider some belts to count and others not to makes little sense, especially when you consider that the "World" titles seem interchangeable (I.E. you are a 5 time WWE champ if you win the WWE Title again or a 5 time WHC if you win that).

[thedamndest]

I think Royal Rumble (especially post 1992) and King of the Ring wins are pretty impressive too. It's almost more impressive since they are only once a year (KotR even less now) and only one guy is going to take it (usually).

[Mr. Nerfect]

All the championships make this very, very confusing. I mean, there are so many combinations of titles a wrestler can have now. You can pretty much have so many categories:

True Grand Slam
When a wrestler holds every single major championship in the WWE. This would mean winning all seven of the WWE's major championships at least one each. Right now, Edge would be the closest to achieving this, only needing to win the ECW Championship.

Classic Grand Slam
When a wrestler has held the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, European Championship (now defunct) and World Tag Team Championship. Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Jericho and Jeff Hardy have all achieved this.

General Grand Slam
When a wrestler has held any sort of WWE santioned World Championship, another major singles championship, any WWE santioned Tag Team Championship and the European Championship. Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero and John Bradshaw Layfield have achieved this, as well as all Classic Grand Slam Champions.

World Title Triple Crown
Achieved by winning all three of the WWE's currently santioned World Championships (WWE, World Heavyweight and ECW Championship). Kane and Big Show only have to win the World Heavyweight Championship; CM Punk only has to win the WWE Championship; Shawn Michaels, Triple H, The Undertaker, Edge, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and John Cena only have to win the ECW Championship.

Classic Triple Crown
Achieved by having held the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship and World Tag Team Championship at some point in your career.

Brand Triple Crown
When a wrestler wins all the major championships santioned by a particular brand. For a RAW Superstar, this means having held the World Heavyweight Championship, Intercontinental Championship and World Tag Team Championship. In regards to SmackDown!, it would be the WWE Championship, United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship.

General Triple Crown
Held by any wrestler who has won a World Championship, secondary championship or tag team championship in their WWE career.

Special Achievement Triple Crown
When a wrestler has won the Royal Rumble, King of the Ring and Money in the Bank Ladder Match, they can be said to have won all the major annual events. Edge only needs to win the Royal Rumble to achieve this; Triple H needs to win Money in the Bank.

[Shadow]

Wow...Jeff Hardy's in some pretty special company.

[XL]

And Noid's post is enough to tell me that I am in no way wrong to consider it impossible to win a true "Triple Crown" or "Grand Slam" in today's WWE.

There are far too many way's to do it. It's the same with the belts in general - I don't consider Jeff Hardy as a Main Eventer cos there's so much scope to be in the ME, just as I don't think I'll ever be that impressed by Edge's multiple World/WWE Title reigns.

Seriously, I'd consider TNA's Triple Crown (won by Styles, Angle, Joe, any others?) more prestigious within company kayfabe terms.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yeah, I get exactly what you're saying, XL. Personally, I think the only big thing these days would be winning all three World Titles, having won every single championship, or winning all three "special events."

Edge is actually close to knocking all these off. Personally, I'd love to see him go after the ECW Championship just so he can call himself the greatest champion ever.