WWE News: Interesting fact about Randy Orton's Grand Slam win revealed

​

The Apex Predator hit the Grand Slam at Fastlane

What's the story?

In a surprising turn of events, 'The Viper' Randy Orton beat Bobby Roode to become the new US Champion at the Fastlane pay-per-view this past Sunday.

With this win, Randy Orton became a Grand Slam Champion in WWE. However, the 'WWE Stats & Info' Twitter page has pointed out a unique statistic about Orton's Grand Slam win.

In case you didn’t know…

Randy Orton faced off against Bobby Roode at the Fastlane PPV this past Sunday for the US Title. With the US Championship win, Randy Orton is now considered a Grand Slam Champion in WWE, joining an elite list of Superstars such as Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Edge, Kurt Angle and more recently, former Shield members Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.

To be considered a Grand Slam Champion in WWE today, a Superstar must have held the World Title (WWE Championship or Universal Championship), the Tag Team Titles, the US Championship and the Intercontinental Championship. Originally, Shawn Michaels declared himself the first ever Grand Slam Champion, when he won the European Title back in 1997.

The heart of the matter

Roman Reigns became a Grand Slam champion in November last year when he won the Intercontinental Championship. Three months earlier in August, Dean Ambrose was accorded this honor when he won the Tag Team Championship alongside Seth Rollins.

The latest Superstar to be declared Grand Slam Champion is 'The Viper' Randy Orton. The US Title had surprisingly eluded Orton in his 13-year long career before he finally won the title from Roode after hitting him with the iconic 'RKO outta nowhere'.

However, what is unique about The Viper's win is that he is now only the second WWE Superstar after Chris Jericho, to have achieved the feat of becoming a Grand Slam winner with the US Title as the last achievement.

.@RandyOrton joins @IAmJericho as the only @WWE Superstars to achieve the #WWE Grand Slam Championship with the #USTitle as the final accomplishment.

— WWE Stats & Info (@WWEStats) March 12, 2018

This was also Randy Orton's first time competing for the US Title, in his career.

In @RandyOrton’s nearly 16-year @WWE career, this is the FIRST time he is competing in a match to become US Champion.

(He DID compete in #USTitle matches in 2006, but he was defending the title as a substitute for Booker T, so he was not eligible to become the new champion.)

— WWE Stats & Info (@WWEStats) March 12, 2018

What's next?

After the completion of the match, Jinder Mahal came out to attack Orton. Bobby Roode made the save by hitting the Modern Day Maharaja with the Glorious DDT. Surprisingly, Roode went on to hit Orton with a DDT as well, seemingly turning heel.

It now looks like the US Title bout will include all three men, heading towards WrestleMania.

Author's take

Bobby Roode's run with the US Title was lackluster at best. So The Viper winning the title has come like a breath of fresh air. Hopefully, Orton will be able to elevate the prestige of the title, much like The Miz has done with the Intercontinental Championship over on Raw.

​