The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 13

Randy Orton (October 7, 2007 - April 27, 2008)

Randy Orton: Won his second WWE Championship on the same night he won his first

Randy Orton's No Mercy 2007 started and ended well.

He began the night as WWE Champion when he was awarded the strap by WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. However, that reign barely lasted 10 minutes after he was immediately challenged and then defeated by his former mentor and long-time nemesis, Triple H.

Triple H and Orton would collide once more in a "Last Man Standing" bout that was the headline match on the card.

In doing so, they marked the only time in WWE history when the same match had opened and closed a wrestling pay per view.

The Last Man Standing contest was a phenomenal battle. "The Game" played the valiant babyface, exhausted in his third bout of the evening against his ferocious challenger, who was seething after his defeat earlier in the show.

The finish eventually came when Orton hit the RKO on Triple H after the "Cerebral Assassin" had attempted to Pedigree "The Viper" on the announce table at ringside.

Orton won his second WWE Championship in the same night he won his first. After the hot potato with the title on October 7, 2007, the belt achieved stability around Ortons' waist as he held the title for six months.

He defeated Shawn Michaels in two impressive collisions at Cyber Sunday and Survivor Series and retained versus Chris Jericho in Y2J's comeback bout after a two year absence from WWE.

Orton's run of superlative title bouts continued at the 2008 Royal Rumble when he pinned Jeff Hardy after an entertaining back and forth battle when he reversed a Twist of Fate into the RKO.

Orton turned back the challenge of John Cena at No Way Out after Cena cashed in his WrestleMania title bout a month early (Cena had won the 2008 Royal Rumble match) and also defeated Cena and Triple H in a triple threat bout at 'Mania XXIV the following month.

However, it would be Triple H who ended another Orton title reign at Backlash on April 27, 2008 in a Fatal 4 Way also featuring Cena and JBL.

Triple H had ended all three of RKO's World title runs.

Orton's time would come again however, many, many times.

Thanks for reading our series so far! If you'd like to check out the other entries in the series, head to the first page, where we have links to all the previous editions.

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