Why won't WWE recognize U.S. Championship for Grand Slam/Triple Crown?

[LoudClearVoice]

I've always wondered why the WWE won't recognize the US title as a singles title that makes someone eligible for the Grand Slam or Triple Crown.

When The Miz won the WWE title, it got me thinking about it because he would be a TC champion if they recognized that title.

Certainly the US title is prestigious. It is at least as prestigious as the IC title which is recognized.


Thoughts?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The whole Grand Slam & Triple Crown stuff is something that's mostly embraced by the IWC rather than the WWE I think. I can't recall if I've ever heard a WWE announcer or commentator call Shawn Michaels or Triple H "Grand Slam Champions". If I have, it's been so long that I just can't remember and/or it's extremely rare to hear those terms used on WWE television. These are concepts you sometimes read about in publications like the Wrestling Observer Newsletter or Pro Wrestling Illustrated, at least these days.

Before I read the title of this thread, I'd actually forgotten about these concepts to be quite honest. If I had to take a guess, it might be because the United States Championship isn't a WWE created title. The WWE United Sates Championship is a continuation from the WCW U.S. Championship, which was previously the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship and which was previously the territorial version of the title used by Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

 

[Seabastion]

I've always wondered why the WWE won't recognize the US title as a singles title that makes someone eligible for the Grand Slam or Triple Crown.

When The Miz won the WWE title, it got me thinking about it because he would be a TC champion if they recognized that title.

Certainly the US title is prestigious. It is at least as prestigious as the IC title which is recognized.


Thoughts?

So would John Cena and the Big Show since they never won the IC title.
I really dont think it means anything any more. A guy like the Undertaker will never be Grand Slam/Triple Crown Champion because he never won the IC title.

I think they should recognize the U.S even if it has WCW/NWA origin, after all the WWE championship has NWA origin and obviously they recognize it. It is probably because of the WCW lineage.

 

[RicSpade]

Actually the concept of Grand Slam or Triple Crown Champion was something that was concepted way before the WWE/WCW merger and it started as being comprised as IC, WWE, and Tag Titles, and once they created the European title and HBK won the belt he became the first Grand Slam champion. Its kinda hard to consider yourself Grand Slam champion when there are two sets of World Titles, Undisputed Tag Titles, Two Mid-Card belts, Royal Rumble, Money in the bank, King of the Ring. The meaning doesn't make sense, thats why now a days a wrestler is referred to as a man who has held every major title in the WWE as opposed to A grand slam champion or Triple Crown or Ultimate Champion or anything to that manner.

 

[worldchamp101]

The reason why the United States Championship doesn't count towards the Triple Crown/Grand Slam titles is because it didn't originate in WWE. It is a championship that came over from WCW. The championships that are considered in the Triple Cown and Grand Slam titles are all WWE created titles. I think that is why.

 

[Hellacious Onslaught]

Something I thought of a while back when I was a big Christian fan... If he was ever to hold a WWE championship he would have had. Lightweight, Hardcore, European, tag title,US, IC, ECW title and add to that a TNA championship. quite impressive.

 

[Seabastion]

Actually the concept of Grand Slam or Triple Crown Champion was something that was concepted way before the WWE/WCW merger and it started as being comprised as IC, WWE, and Tag Titles, and once they created the European title and HBK won the belt he became the first Grand Slam champion. Its kinda hard to consider yourself Grand Slam champion when there are two sets of World Titles, Undisputed Tag Titles, Two Mid-Card belts, Royal Rumble, Money in the bank, King of the Ring. The meaning doesn't make sense, thats why now a days a wrestler is referred to as a man who has held every major title in the WWE as opposed to A grand slam champion or Triple Crown or Ultimate Champion or anything to that manner.

Actually it isnt. Edge has done it. He won the former (during the Invasion) U.S and 3-4x IC title. 5x World Champion 4x WWE Champion, King of the Ring 2001, First Ever Mr. Money in the Bank, 2010 Royal Rumble winner and 14x Tag Team Champion

 

[The Other Hardy Brother]

Because the United States title isn't a WWE created championship. It was created in WCW. That's why only the Intercontinental title is considered and not the United States title.

 

[The Brain]

As many have mentioned one reason is because the US title is not a WWE original. I think the bigger reason is the accomplishment isn’t nearly as impressive as it used to be. As Jack-Hammer said I don’t recall WWE hyping grand slam champions much. They used to mention HBK back in 1997 when he was the first but hardly anyone else has been recognized. When Diesel won the world title in 1994 he was mentioned as triple crown champion and it was unique because he was only the third person the accomplish that feat. Since then, so many have done it. Titles have come and gone and a lot more titles have been added. With two world titles, two mid card titles, and for a time two tag titles the feat just became less impressive. A list with only a few names is impressive. A laundry list of names isn’t.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

Good insight from everybody.

If it is that the US title has WCW lineage why they won't recognize it (and I believe that probably is why) then it's kind of stupid because they recognize Flair's WCW championships when they call him a 16 or 17 time champion. So if you're going to recognize WCW in that sense, why not let The Miz, Big Show, etc. call themselves Triple Crown champions?
What if they merge the IC and US titles?

 

[deadtaker]

It was a highlight when Shawn Micheals was the only member of the "Grand Slam" Gold standard. Now with how much he title changes hands it isn't as prestigeous now. The list of People who have won the Tag Titles, I.C. Belt and Heavyweight belt are numerous

Shwn Micheals, Bret Hart, Edge, HHH, Stone Cold, Kane, Randy Orton, The Rock, Kurt Angle.

If You include people who have won the U.S championship as well the list adds many other people. It just doesn't matter anymore.

 

[worldchamp101]

SDS1582, Flair's WCW Championship reigns has nothing to do with the United States Championship or being a Triple Cown/Grand Slam Championship. WWE counts Falir's WCW Championship to the number of times he has world champion because the WCW CHampionship is a world championship. Being WCW Champion counts as being a world champion. Similarly Bret Hart is considered to be a 5 time US Champion because he won the WCW US Championship 4 times and the WWE US Championship 1time

 

[vampirek]

Something I thought of a while back when I was a big Christian fan... If he was ever to hold a WWE championship he would have had. Lightweight, Hardcore, European, tag title,US, IC, ECW title and add to that a TNA championship. quite impressive.

One small error in this Christian has never won the US title, plus the whole tag team history is a bit of a mess however Christian won the World Tag Team Titles (as they were renamed) and never held the WWE Tag Team Titles.

Also the whole Grand Slam thing hasn't been mentioned since Shawn Michaels first mentioned it. It was used to promote him as the greatest champion, apart from that it has been the fans who have kept it going.

 

[JJ15776]

Actually it isnt. Edge has done it. He won the former (during the Invasion) U.S and 3-4x IC title. 5x World Champion 4x WWE Champion, King of the Ring 2001, First Ever Mr. Money in the Bank, 2010 Royal Rumble winner and 14x Tag Team Champion

Gotta be honest, I have no idea what this contributes to the thread as a whole, let alone how it's a response to what you quoted. The "actually it isn't" makes no sense because it looks like that's a response to (paraphrasing) "Actually the concept of Grand Slam and Triple Crown predates the merger" - which, by the way, is definitively and inarguably true, so you can't say "it isn't" to that...but then the rest of this isn't even a response to that, so I really don't get what's going on here.

One small error in this Christian has never won the US title, plus the whole tag team history is a bit of a mess however Christian won the World Tag Team Titles (as they were renamed) and never held the WWE Tag Team Titles.

Not true at all. Before the merger and brand split, the WWE had one set of titles - the WWE Tag Team titles. Edge & Christian won them 7 times. Then after the brand split, they became exclusive to Raw and were renamed the World Tag Team titles (to match the World Heavyweight title, which was on Raw at the time) and SD! created a new set of titles called the WWE Tag Team titles. Christian won the World Tag Team titles two more times after the rename. So while he has not won the current WWE Tag Team titles, there were 7 times he was a "WWE Tag Team champion."

As for why the WWE doesn't recognize the United States title as part of the Grand Slam/Triple Crown thing, I'm guessing it's just because they don't care enough to do so...

 

[silverwraith720]

Why not also consider the ECW world heavyweight, ECW tag, WCW world heavyweight, or WCW tag titles as alternatives? ECW heavyweight, WCW tag and heavyweight were all active at one point or another in WWF/E.

I for one am in favor of making the Triple Crown of Grand Slam a notable accomplishment. Though I would suggest revamping what it takes to earn such a distinction, such as to include Royal Rumble, King of the Ring, and Money in the Bank. Yes, I realize that pretty much eliminates everyone from the list except Edge, BUT, having a smaller list of superstars achieve this would make it look more prestigious. This would also be appropriate seeing as the only things keeping Edge from being a GS Champion are the European and Hardcore titles. The only other person who is close to this is Christian.

 

[Trill Co$by]

As many have mentioned one reason is because the US title is not a WWE original. I think the bigger reason is the accomplishment isn’t nearly as impressive as it used to be. As Jack-Hammer said I don’t recall WWE hyping grand slam champions much. They used to mention HBK back in 1997 when he was the first but hardly anyone else has been recognized. When Diesel won the world title in 1994 he was mentioned as triple crown champion and it was unique because he was only the third person the accomplish that feat. Since then, so many have done it. Titles have come and gone and a lot more titles have been added. With two world titles, two mid card titles, and for a time two tag titles the feat just became less impressive. A list with only a few names is impressive. A laundry list of names isn’t.

In terms of Triple crown champions, WWE only has 21 of them in their many years of being around... and for grand slam it's a mere 10... There's nothing wrong with those numbers and if you ask me I wouldn't mind seeing the US title being the equivalent of what the European title was to the Attitude era.


As for the main topic, if I had to guess (not going with the WCW answer) it would probably be because of the fact that they want to gain a few WWE names as champions with that title... Then again, as one had alleged to before, the terms are more recognized by the IWC than WWE nowadays.

 

[ABMorales787]

It's become an obsolete concept. The last to be acknowledged as becoming a Grand Slam and Triple Crown winner was JBL back in 2009 when he won the Intercontinental Championship. And since then, it's never been brought up again. With all the championships among the brands, it would just complicate things to change the rules. We still have issues figuring out where the now retired ECW Championship fitted within WWE. Was it a developmental belt? A mid-card belt? Upper-mid-card belt? Now you have two sets of World Championships and two sets of mid-card Championships. There used to be two sets of Tag Team Championships.

The concept and the championships have been so diluted that it's pointless to acknowledge who's a Grand Slam Champion or Triple Crown Winner. it would be a lot easier to just name the different title the wrestler has won.

 

[Adalam]

The arguement that the US title isn't a WWE original is crap. They recognize the World Heavyweight Championship, the main title of the boys in Blue on Friday nights, as a piece of the Triple Crown or Grand Slam achievement. That title is represented by the Big Gold belt that Ric Flair brought over from WCW, so why the US title ain't a grand slam piece is beyond me.

 

[Strong Style X]

Something I thought of a while back when I was a big Christian fan... If he was ever to hold a WWE championship he would have had. Lightweight, Hardcore, European, tag title,US, IC, ECW title and add to that a TNA championship. quite impressive.

Technically, Christian was the NWA champion; not TNA. Which would make that list seem better simply because the NWA championship (despite meaning close to nothing modern day) is a more prestigious title compared to the TNA one. Too bad it'll most likely never happen.

The arguement that the US title isn't a WWE original is crap. They recognize the World Heavyweight Championship, the main title of the boys in Blue on Friday nights, as a piece of the Triple Crown or Grand Slam achievement. That title is represented by the Big Gold belt that Ric Flair brought over from WCW, so why the US title ain't a grand slam piece is beyond me.

The World Heavyweight Championship simply has the same look as the NWA/WCW Championship, it does not count as the same belt with it's past champions. The United States Championship is a continuation of the NWA/WCW belts lineage.

 

[willdawg]

The reason the US title isn't part of the Triple Crown is because a McMahon, an agent, a producer or a writer hasn't had the need for it to be. If it becomes acknowledged then Cena becomes a Triple Crown holder as well as Big Show, but Cena doesn't need anything more to get over and the Big Show holds a more impressive Triple Crown with the WWE, WCW and ECW titles.

Now if Tajiri, Matt Hardy, or MVP ever win the World or WWE title...oh wait, nevermind.

The question is will someone realize that if they do start counting the US title we can then hear Cole praise the Miz for being the awesomest Triple Crown winner ever?

 

[The Brain]

In terms of Triple crown champions, WWE only has 21 of them in their many years of being around... and for grand slam it's a mere 10... There's nothing wrong with those numbers and if you ask me I wouldn't mind seeing the US title being the equivalent of what the European title was to the Attitude era.

I think 21 is a big number for something that is supposedly very prestigious. As I mentioned Diesel became the third triple crown champion in 1994. That means 18 others have achieved it in only 16 years. That doesn’t seem very prestigious to me. When you say 10 grand slam titles does that mean World, IC, Tag, and European? If so ten is a high number considering the European title was only around for about five years. Face it; the numbers are too high and the feat isn’t as prestigious as it once was.

 

[Why Always Me]

For me they dont recognise it because it means jack nowadays. Two world titles, 2 mid card titles and for a while 2 tag titles, means nothing IMO.

I remember when The Rock and Mankind won the Tag titles in late 1999 and thinking 'Wow The Rock is a Triple Crown champion', or when Triple H and Austin won the Tag titles and thinking 'HHH is now the 2nd grand slam champ'. Back then because the titles were not overpopulated it was a big deal, but now its not. Heres hoping the rumoured unifications happen......

 

[OmegaWWE]

The reason why the United States Championship doesn't count towards the Triple Crown/Grand Slam titles is because it didn't originate in WWE. It is a championship that came over from WCW. The championships that are considered in the Triple Cown and Grand Slam titles are all WWE created titles. I think that is why.

The World Championship is also a Championship that came over from WCW. Eric Bischoff brought back the WCW World Championship in Sept. 2002 to be defended on Raw. Since then, WWE added the WWE Logo to it, but that's it.

As far as what constitutes a Grand Slam champion (in WWE or TNA), it's someone who has won a Top-Tier/World Championship, a Mid-Card Championship, a Third-Tier Championship, and a Tag Tea Championship. So, it's unnecessary to have won the World Championship, WWE Championship, IC, US, WWE Tag Team, World Tag Team, Euro, Hardcore, etc. to be considered a Grand Slam Champion.

 

[Ming]

Maybe because the Intercintinental Championship is more prestigious than the U.S Championship despite both being mid-card championships, WWE must feel this way because the U.S Championship was brought in from WCW and the Intercontinental Championship was a creation by the WWE.

A lot of other people have mentioned this as well, WWE don't really recognize the whole Grand Slam/ Triple Crown thing, the only time I've ever heard it mentioned in the WWE was when Miz was bragging himself this week on Smackdown I think it was, may have been on RAW.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Well it looks like WWE did acknowledge the US title as a triple crown, with Miz saying last week on Raw that he won the triple crown title. Miz won the WWE tag titles, US title, and WWE championship this year. I guess the phrase can be interchangeable with the IC title too.