When Bruno Sammartino won his first WWE Championship in 1963, the wrestling scene was far different than it is today. For the Italian strongman, keeping the title meant turning back the likes of Gene Kiniski, Killer Kowalski, and Giant Baba. While all were greats of their time, they hardly possessed the athleticism of today’s WWE Superstars. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that wrestling rings slowly began to be taken over by larger, more muscular Superstars. As the 1970s made way for the ’80s and beyond, sports-entertainment continued to evolve. Those who grew up idolizing “Superstar” Billy Graham and Bob Backlund started to combine their heroes’ greatest attributes to create today’s Superstar—the ultimate combination of physical conditioning, charisma, and athleticism.
Jeff Hardy, king of the mountain at Armageddon 2008.
With upwards of one hundred of these “Ultimate Superstars” on the roster at one time, holding the WWE Championship for an extended period of time is considerably harder than it was in Sammartino’s day, as evidenced by Edge’s victory at Survivor Series, which started a game of hot potato that is still being played today.
A mere three weeks after capturing his third WWE Championship, the Rated-R Superstar defended his title against Jeff Hardy and Triple H in the final-ever Armageddon Pay-Per-View match. Ironically, both Edge and Hardy were also involved in the event’s first-ever match in 1999. In between that time, the two Superstars’ careers practically paralleled each other. Together, they grew from “curtain jerkers” into bona fide cult icons, thanks in large part to their daredevil Tables, Ladders, and Chairs performances over the World Tag Team Championship. But on this night, the prize was the WWE Championship.
For a moment, it looked like Triple H was on the verge of victory after he Pedigreed champion Edge. But as The Game went for the cover, Hardy delivered his signature Swanton Bomb, which sent Triple H rolling out of the ring. With The Game on the outside, Hardy rolled on top of Edge and made the match-ending cover.
Like Edge before him, Hardy’s childhood was spent fantasizing about one day becoming WWE Champion. At Armageddon, his dream finally came true, but it wasn’t without its fair share of setbacks. In recent years, the Extreme Enigma suffered from a drug dependency, which set him back both personally and professionally. His erratic behavior eventually reached a boiling point in 2003, resulting in WWE severing ties with him completely. After hitting rock bottom, Hardy finally fought to put the pieces of his life back together. He eventually proved himself to WWE and earned his job back in 2006. Fast forward to December 14, 2008, and he was on top of the wrestling world… temporarily.
With his brother, Matt, in his corner, Jeff made his first Pay-Per-View title defense against Edge at the 2009 Royal Rumble. Heading into the event, Jeff didn’t realize that it was Matt who had attacked him from behind on the morning of Survivor Series. By the end of the night, however, the truth came out in the most painful of fashions.
Toward the end of the match, Jeff placed a steel chair under the head of his fallen opponent. He then urged his brother to take a second chair and nail the challenger in the head, a move Edge made popular years earlier. Matt jerked the chair back, giving the illusion that he was going to whack the Rated-R Superstar. But instead he floored his own unsuspecting brother. Motionless, Jeff lay on his back while Edge made the cover.
From a personal standpoint, Matt’s betrayal drove a huge wedge in the relationship of the two brothers. Professionally, however, it gave Edge his fourth WWE Championship, and one that he would once again have a tough time retaining. Just twenty-one days into his reign, the Rated-R Superstar coughed up the gold in an Elimination Chamber Match at No Way Out.
Just minutes into the contest, Edge was surprisingly knocked out of the match when Jeff Hardy rolled him up for the pin. For the next half hour, the WWE Championship had no owner, as five of WWE’s top names—Hardy, Triple H, Undertaker, Vladimir Kozlov, and Big Show—battled for the right to take the gold home. In the end, it was Triple H Pedigreeing Undertaker en route to his record eighth WWE Championship reign.
Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is an extremely rare behavioral disorder characterized by impulsive acts of aggression. Oftentimes, the condition manifests itself in uncontrollable fits of rage.
One week after punting the sixty-three-year-old Mr. McMahon into a hospital bed, Randy Orton—surrounded by a team of lawyers and therapists—claimed he was not responsible for his actions against the WWE chairman. Instead, he alleged the attack was caused by his supposed affliction with IED. Orton did little to actually prove he was suffering from the disorder, but the charade was successful in saving the third-generation Superstar from certain termination.
With a new lease on life, it would have been logical for Orton to shift his anger away from sports-entertainment’s most powerful family. But the Legend Killer was never one to take the conventional route. Instead of backing away, he went at the McMahons with even more vigor, complete with a punt to Shane’s head and an RKO to Stephanie.
The sight of his children’s mother victimized at the hands of the Viper was unbearable for Triple H, who challenged Orton and his Legacy cohorts, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, to a Handicap Match on Raw. During the contest, Orton and DiBiase handcuffed Triple H to the top ring rope. The Legend Killer then grabbed a sledgehammer and threatened to bash the champ’s skull. Fearing for her husband’s life, Stephanie ran to the ring hoping to stop the slaughter. Instead, she was hit with another RKO.
There was very little The Game could do to save Stephanie. Still cuffed to the rope, he was forced to watch while his rival slithered over his wife’s fallen body. Then, with Triple H helplessly watching, Orton slowly kissed Stephanie’s lips.
“It was a very powerful situation for me,” admits Orton. “I had nothing but time to do what I needed to do that night. After I sealed it with a kiss, I felt like I couldn’t get much more heat.”
Triple H was able to cool off Orton at WrestleMania XXV, but their white-hot personal war was far from being extinguished. At Backlash, The Game, Shane McMahon, and Batista squared off against Orton, DiBiase, and Rhodes in a six-man tag team match with a unique twist: If Orton’s team won, regardless of which Superstars were involved in the deciding fall, the Legend Killer would be awarded the WWE Championship.
Traditionalists cringed at the thought of one Superstar winning or losing the prestigious WWE title for another. Flashbacks of the dark day Andre the Giant handed the title to DiBiase’s father, the Million Dollar Man, occupied their thoughts. Unlike with that historic event, though, winning the gold for somebody else was legal at Backlash, meaning there was a very real chance Orton would walk away with the title without being involved in the decision.
By night’s end, all concerns were quieted when both Triple H and Orton played a major role in the match’s outcome. As The Game attempted to convince Batista not to use a steel chair, the Viper snuck in and dropped the distracted champ with an RKO. Orton went for the pin, but Triple H miraculously kicked out. The sold-out Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, jumped to their feet, anticipating a comeback by the eight-time WWE Champion. But their joy was quickly squashed when Orton went to his patented punt to finally dethrone the King of Kings.
Orton’s third WWE title reign closely mimicked his second, as he utilized disqualifications to avoid losing the gold. Sensing a loss to Batista at May’s Judgment Day nearing, the champ intentionally slapped the referee, resulting in a blatant DQ. The shrewd move saved Orton’s reign but did little to rid himself of Batista, a Superstar with whom he owns an extensive history.
“Dave was the first guy I met in OVW in 2000 when I first started,” remembers Orton. “We were hand-picked because we both had a lot of potential. There were a lot of positive things we brought to the table. He was the heater, the body. I was an up-and-coming third-generation guy. Even back then, I knew we would have many matches.”
Orton was right, and their next would be at the Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View in June 2009. This time, though, Orton wouldn’t be able to save his title via disqualification. Instead, they would battle in a steel cage, where there are only three ways to win: Escape the steel structure, pinfall, or submission.
Batista.
Heading into the match, Batista had already proven himself a future Hall of Famer. His résumé at the time boasted one WWE Tag Team Championship reign, three World Tag Team Title reigns, and four runs with the prestigious World Heavyweight Championship. But there was always one title that eluded him throughout his highly decorated career—the WWE Championship.
High drama unfolded early in the match, as Orton nearly escaped the structure within seconds of the opening bell. But Batista quickly pulled him off the top of the cage and introduced the champ facefirst into all four sides of the unforgiving steel. Orton never fully recovered from his poor start. After just seven short minutes, the Animal flattened his former Evolution ally with a Batista Bomb to pick up his first-ever WWE title.
The contest proved to be one of the shortest WWE Championship Steel Cage Matches in history. Unfortunately for Batista, his reign also lacked length. The new champ was brutally attacked by Orton, DiBiase, and Rhodes just twenty-four hours after his big win, resulting in a completely torn left biceps for the Animal. Facing surgery and a four-month rehabilitation process, Batista had no choice but to relinquish his newly won title.
For the Animal, the injury marked the second time he was forced to forfeit a world title (in January 2006, he also relinquished the World Heavyweight Championship due to injury). But for Orton, it was an opportunity. On the June 15, 2009, episode of Raw, the third-generation Superstar outlasted Triple H, Big Show, and John Cena in a Fatal Four Way Match to reclaim the gold he had lost just one week prior.
