Grand Slam Champions
 

Now that JBL has won the IC title and become the 8th Grand Slam Champion, the only currently contracted performers that could accomplish this are Christian, Matt Hardy and Regal. I'd love to see either of these guys win a world title, but is it gonna happen, or will the number stand at 8?

Matt Hardy could conceivably win the IC title and World Title before his time is up. He has a good shot at getting a world title run at some point down the line, and before or after that he will probably be utilized in an uppermidcard capacity, which could lead to the IC title.
He just needs to happen to be on the show that features that belt, and he will more than likely win it.

I don't think Regal will. He may have last year if he didn't test positive right before what seemed like a big main event push.

Christian, on the other hand, has a very good shot.

Forgot Matt held the Euro title. :-\

I'm hoping Christian does, and could see it happening, but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a bit of a push, then shuffled into the midcard and underutilized for goddamn ever. This has a tendancy to happen. I do agree with the assessment on Matt and Regal, which is a shame.

It's not really a shame. I'm suggesting Matt will likely win a world title. That's an enourmous accomplishment for him.
There's nothing wrong with him being elevated for a short lived or transitional title reign, and then worked back into the uppermidcard. Not everyone can get the top spot and hold onto it for their whole career. Only a handful of guys a decade do that.

Christian will get his shot I think. I think the key to things is patience. Look at this year. Jeff Hardy actually scored a title win. Jericho won the world title again...twice. Neither seemed likely.

I think if someone is consistently over, and consistently performs well there is always hope. The company needs new stars and champions to step up at certain times. There are times where the roster/main event scene is crowded, and other times when it is thinned by injuries or retirements.
Look at JBL. RVD too. And Eddie. Booker T even got back to the top, and so did Edge.

I think Christian would have been elevated and won a world title in WWE by now if he hadn't lost patience and left.
And I still think he will

I meant a shame that Regal blew his shot at that apparent push. I'd love to see him as a top heel. I do think Matt will get a proper world title at some point.

Yea, that is a shame. I just don't see them building him back up again.

Just for clarification purposes, who else is a grand slam champion? JBL? Edge? Cena? HHH? HBK? Taker? Help me out here.

Cheers that would make sense.

The way the titles have been unified etc. it's hard to keep a clear definition. The European is unified with the Intercontinental technically, isn't it? Can get a bit confusing at times.

What about Punk? He won the WHC, was tag champs with Kofi, and just had the IC title.

Yeah, originally the IC title was unified with the European title and then the Hardcore title. The IC title was then unified with the World Heavyweight Title before it was brought back again.

Regal might win the title for a short period of time on his final European Tour in Blackpool.... It would get a huge pop......Vince might reward him with the Title on his final days with the company, even if fhe holds it for only a few days.....its possible, but very unlikely

Edge never had the European title. Also, WWE has referred to Angle as a former Grand Slam champion, so it would be safe to say the WWE tag titles count as legit tag titles.

Switch Edge for JBL. Order is HBK, Triple H, Jericho, Angle, Eddie, RVD, Jeff, JBL.

For what it's worth Mark Henry and Hurricane Helms were both European Champion so they're still in the running.

If Hurricane ever wins a world title I would go on a killing spree using, as my only weapon, the permanent erection I'll have developed.

That being said, I can't ever see that happening.


Unlikely as it is, if they decided to state that the ECW title is a legit world title and henceforth a suitable alternative to the real world titles, Mark Henry would then be pretty likely.

Shawn Michaels and Diesel were no more of a legit team than the Two Man Power Trip (with HHH). Just saying
I think both were legit though.

So with the €uro title scrapped, is there no chance of getting GRAND SLAM champs now? I mean, if it's never going to come back, ever, surely someone who has done: tag (both), wc (both), ic, us and ecw will be like a modern version of a Grand Slam? Otherwise, any future legends wont have a chance in hell.

They were a legitimate stable and team though. They were a unit, and they had a name. They had actual tag fueds, and weren't just an unlikely alliance to advance existing fueds/storylines. They weren't random tag team like Austin/Michaels were, or Cena/Batista.

We've gone over that.

Triple Crown doesn't count......

Alright, I just looked up Wikipedia (which is not the best source, I know), but that argues that in 2001 the WWE argued that the Hardcore Championship could be substituted for the European Championship in the Grand Slam. I never read that. Does anyone know if it is true?

The WWE Tag Team Championship is also a legitimate substitute for the World Tag Team Championship, but the US Title does not count towards a Grand Slam, nor does the ECW Championship. If I were to make up a reason for this, could it be because their histories extend back to other promotions?

Wikipedia lists the WWE Grand Slam Champions as Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kane, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Jeff Hardy and John Bradshaw Layfield. Kane, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero and Booker T are questionable, as they have all held substitute components of the Grand Slam. Especially Booker T, who held neither the European Championship or WWE Championship, but the Hardcore and World Heavyweight Titles.

This same source indicates that the following wrestlers can win the Grand Slam with one title victory: Big Show (needs to win IC Title), Christian (needs to win WWE World Title), Goldust (needs to win WWE World Title), The Undertaker (needs to win IC Title), William Regal (needs to win WWE World Title).

The "true" Grand Slam Champions, by the original distinction, are Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and John Bradshaw Layfield. Oddly enough, all of those wrestlers save for Jeff Hardy can be symbolised by three characters: HBK, HHH, Y2J, RVD and JBL.

Truthfully, I think the definition of "Grand Slam Champion" needs to change. Grand Slam often does refer to four of the biggest titles you can win in a field, but when there are parallels and shadows to each, it becomes controversial.

The Grand Slam should represent only titles currently active. There are currently seven championships that are open to every single competitor in the WWE. These are the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, ECW Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship, I propose that the Grand Slam consists of wrestlers who have achieved all seven of those title victories.

This, however, means that nobody is a Grand Slam Champion. Edge only needs to win the ECW Title to achieve this, though. Another option is that you take titles that the WWE considers to equate perfectly with each other (the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship, for example), and only require a GSC to win one of them, with the other victory being considered redundant (which I think is a bit silly). This would probably mean the Grand Slam Champion would still only have to win four titles: WWE or World Title, ECW Title, IC or US Title and WWE or World Tag Team Title. If you took this method, then Big Show, Kane and CM Punk would actually qualify as Grand Slam Champions, which seems a little odd.

Grand slam isn't possible do to the lack of a fourth tier title.

WHW = WWE
IC = US
WWE Tag = World Tag
ECW?

So I guess if you count the ECW title as fourth tier then you can be Grand slam...so I guess by that logic Punk is grandslam...

Yeah, truthfully, that's what I'd go by. Rob Van Dam, Big Show, Kane and CM Punk are the only guys that I can think of who would qualify as Grand Slam Champions under these requirements.

I would think the US title would be kayfabe closer to the European title than the ECW title is. For starters, the ECW title is a world title, so it's automatically higher than the IC belt. The US and IC belt tend to fluctuate in prestige depending on how they are booked, but due to the long-term history of the IC belt, I would go ahead and make the US belt the new Euro and have the ECW belt something that exists outside of this new Grand Slam. It sounds "cleaner" to say WWE/World title, IC, US, Tag, rather than throwing the ECW title in there as your lowest ranking belt in the Grand Slam. Arguably, it's not about "rank" and just about titles captured, but if that's the case then why not just change it so you have to capture every belt?

Isn't Big Show the only guy to hold the WWE Titles, WCW Title and ECW Title?

Yeah

He most certainly is.

I was thinking about this just the other day, actually. I mean, if you just look at the names and kayfabe representations of the championships: World Heavyweight (the entire world), WWE (the entire company), ECW (the entire ECW brand), Intercontinental (North American, South America, Europe and Hardcore culture), United States (the United States of America), World Tag Team Champion (the entire world), WWE Tag Team (the entire company), Women's (all the women in the world), Divas (all the women in the company).

I know that's a bit of a mess, but to me that puts the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship at a bit of a stand-still. The World Heavyweight sounds better, because it represents the world, but the WWE represents everything sanctioned within the company. It's a paradox that keeps things even.

The ECW Championship, logically, would operate at about 20% strength to those two championships. It represents one-fifth of WWE programming, but it also goes back to representing an entire company with about fifteen years of history.

When comparing the IC Title and US Title, which are usually considered about equal (although I cannot remember a single incident where the US Champion has ever defeated the IC Champion, besides when Edge won the IC Title as US Champion, and then the US Champion was considered "unified" with it, but was pretty much never mentioned again, giving the IC belt the last laugh), I don't see how the US Title can logically be portrayed as being on the same level geographically as a belt not only representing the United States, but Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe.

I agree that the true Grand Slam Champion in this day and age should win every single championship. So Edge would be closest to achieving this. It'd be a great way to actually give him Hall of Famer-type credibility if/when he does do this.

TNA has it a bit easier. They have the TNA World Heavyweight Title, Legends Title, X-Division Title and Tag Team Titles.

Is there anyone left on the roster that could end up holding the WWE, ECW and WCW title at one time?

Jericho. If he wins the ECW title at any point he accomplishes that.
Technically HHH is eligible. He just needs to win the ECW title, but that's not going to happen.

Angle nearly did. Pretty sure he was going to win the ECW soon if he hadn't left. He's gone now though, and the chances are that if he ever returns he won't be winning the ECW title.
I think Benoit nearly did too. He was more than likely winning that night, but we all know what happened there.

HHH won the WCW title?

This.