WWE's Triple Crown winners

[LODemolition]

Are Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels the only triple crown winners who accomplished the feat in a meaningful way? By that, I mean they were one half of the Tag Team Champions, the Intercontinental Champion, and of course WWE Champion for substantial lengths of time respectively, AND during times when each title had a great amount of prestige.

These are other notable triple crown winners, but for the most part they held the IC and/or Tag Team titles at a time when titles changed hands far too often, making their run as champion unimpressive to say the least.

The Rock, Austin, Jericho, Edge, Jeff Hardy, Orton and Christian

Would you put any of these guys in the same class as Bret and Shawn when it comes to reaching success at the 3 main levels in WWE?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Title changes might've happened more regularly when those others were triple crown champions, but HBK & Bret were champions throughout most of their careers when wrestling was slowly losing its popularity, WWF was irrelevant or when WCW was generally just being a better all round promotion. That's why The Rock & Austin's triple crown status arguably means more.

The rest were mostly triple crown champions when everybody has held multiple titles, in which very few mean anything, and when WWE have a secondary (worthless) mid-card world title.

 

[LODemolition]

Bret and Shawn both completed the triple crown before WCW started to take off with the formation of the NWO in the summer of 1996.

The Rock and Austin's tag team title reigns were pretty forgettable. Austin won them with random partners in Foley, Taker and Shawn because of there being a complete lack of a tag team division. Same can be said for Rock.

The Hart Foundation were champions twice during the height of WWE's tag team competition.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Bret and Shawn both completed the triple crown before WCW started to take off with the formation of the NWO in the summer of 1996.

Yeah, Bret Hart completed it just as WWE was losing it's popularity. HBK achieved it when nobody really cared about WWE.

The Rock and Austin's tag team title reigns were pretty forgettable. Austin won them with random partners in Foley, Taker and Shawn because of there being a complete lack of a tag team division. Same can be said for Rock.

The Hart Foundation were champions twice during the height of WWE's tag team competition.

Sure, the Hart Foundation's tag reign was more important and generally better than any tag reign that The Rock, Austin & HBK have ever had. But it's also just the tag titles, arguably the least important one of the triple crown. After all, two people have the title at the same time so it's ain't that exclusive.

 

[Rated R Legend]

shawn micheals won his 1st tag team title in august 1994 with diesel and they vacated the titles in november 1994. this was not during the height of the tag team division(when hart foundation won there 2 title reigns) like LODemolition has stated in a previous comment. the hart foundation won there 1st title in january 1987. 7 years before hbk and diesel so by his logic shawn micheals tag title reign in the triple crown listings was not as 'important' as bret harts.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

To be honest, while there are a lot of guys who have won a 'triple crown', the only one that occurred when each title was prominently featured was Bret Hart. I am not a Bret mark. I generally think that people have bought the Bret hype, sold by Bret himself, far too much. Bret will always be remembered as better than he really was as an overall performer. It is much like the Eddie Guerrero phenomenon, I might add. I am not saying that Bret isn't talented, because he is. I have followed him since his early days in Stampede. The one thing that is undeniable is that Bret was the most pure triple crown winner.

 

[LODemolition]

Attn: Rated R Legend

I said The Hart Foundation won the tag titles at the height of the tag team division. I didn't say anything about Shawn. Obviously THF's reigns were more meaningful than any of Shawn's (with any partner - Nash, Austin, Cena).

And I agree with Y2eh that Bret is definitely the purest of all triple crown winners and not only because he did it in the traditional way of winning the tag titles first, then going solo and winning the IC belt, and then moving onto main event status and winnin the WWE Championship; but also because all of his reigns in each division were lengthy and legit.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I think you can put Edge, Hardy and Christian up there in terms of accomplishing everything at all three levels.

They all had meaningful runs at all levels. They were real Tag Team Champions, then had successful midcard runs before being promoted to the main event level.

I wouldn't say they accomplished as much at the main event level though as Bret and Shawn. Maybe Edge. But they all went the "traditional" route that Bret and Shawn did by gaining success in a tag team first and then working their way up to the top as singles competitors.

And as mentioned already, Rock and Austin were never really in the tag division. Big Show and Kane are also similar here. In fact they kind of went backwards by winning the World title first and then filling in the blanks with other secondary titles.

EDIT: I forgot the Rockers never actually "won" the titles officially.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

Everyone's forgetting about the 1st Triple Crown champion, Pedro Morales. He first won the WWWF Heavyweight Championship in 1971 and held it until 1973, making him one of the longest reigning champions in WWE history. (only behind Bruno, Backlund, and Hogan). He also was the first 2x I-C champion in the early 80's and had long runs with the title. He also won the Tag Team Title in 1980 with Bob Backlund, though they were stripped of the titles almost immediately. So his tag team run wasn't very meaningful, but he definitely became a Triple Crown champion long before anyone else, and especially when the titles really meant something, even more than during Bret's and Shawn's era.

Also, Diesel became a Triple Crown champion even before Shawn Michaels, so if you're gonna say Shawn's triple crown accomplishment was one of the few that actually meant something, then you've gotta say Diesel is in the same boat. Plus he held the WWF title longer than Shawn. So I think you can throw Diesel in the equation too.

 

[DJrayray]

I think the thing that sets Diesel's Triple-Crown accomplishment apart is the fact that he won the I-C title in April, Tag Titles in August and WWF Title in November.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

The problem with Edge, Hardy and Christian is that their IC title runs didn't mean anything. Like I said, there are plenty of triple crown winners, but the one that stands out as is Bret Hart. Each of his title reigns were at times when the titles actually meant something and each was lengthy and believable.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

The problem with Edge, Hardy and Christian is that their IC title runs didn't mean anything. Like I said, there are plenty of triple crown winners, but the one that stands out as is Bret Hart. Each of his title reigns were at times when the titles actually meant something and each was lengthy and believable.

I'd disagree on Edge. His midcard run was really established in 2001 over feuds for the IC belt. I know the belt got hot potato'd back and forth a lot, and none of his reigns were terribly long, but that's just the era they were in. He also unified the IC and WCW US belts at Survivor Series that year.

 

[LODemolition]

Both Morales and Nash completely slipped my mind. Good call on those 2.

I agree with Y2eh on Edge, Hardy and Christian. Their IC Title reigns are what keeps me from putting them in the elite class. There's no disputing what they accomplished in the tag team division and main event level though.

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

I agree with Y2eh on Edge, Hardy and Christian. Their IC Title reigns are what keeps me from putting them in the elite class. There's no disputing what they accomplished in the tag team division and main event level though.

Jeff Hardy held the WWE Title in probably the worst reign with that title in history. When he took it, the "win" seemed like a fluke, and then he didn't defend it at all, holding it for maybe a month, before losing it to Edge, the same wrestler he took it from. If anybody could define a transitional champion, it would be him. He, easily, to me at least would be worthy of being considered the worst champion of all time. Even when Kane held the belt for less than twenty-four hours, he put on hecks of matches getting the belt and in losing the belt too.

 

[HBsam31]

Morales slipped my mind, good call on that one. The ones that pop right in my mind are HBK,Bret, and Diesel. I know there are a lot more, but those are the three that did it while i was growing up, and the title runs seemingly meant more then. As far as the other ones go I think Edge is worth mentioning, and of course Austin and The Rock. It was such and honor to be a Triple Crown winner, but I think the frequency of title runs, and the titles losing prestige kind of watered down the honor a bit. CM Punk is probably the most recent to win the Triple Crown as I believe he won the IC title? Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Wald]

I think Bret's and Diesel's stands out the most to me to be honest. It was before the title changes made the tag & eventually the IC belts almost worthless.

What annoyed me about the WWF at the time was Bret & Diesel were also called Grand Slam champions, as he held all the titles they could possibly win at that time. The European Championship was thrown into the mix when HBK became champ, I assume as a slap in the face to Bret, but to me it just cheapened the idea.