Jeff Hardy Becomes Grand Slam Champion With United States Championship Victory

Jeff Hardy kicked off Monday Night Raw on Monday by winning the United States Championship for the first time in his career.

And in the process of defeating Jinder Mahal for the, Hardy put himself into the WWE history books twice.

First, he became the 12th wrestler in history to become a WWE Grand Slam Champion under the current format, winning a world championship, a tag team championship and the Intercontinental and US Championships each at least once throughout his career.

Also, in an even more impressive feat, Hardy joined Chris Jericho as the only two wrestlers to win every Grand Slam championship in both formats, as the original format included winning either the now-retired Hardcore and European Championships.

Joining Hardy and Jericho as the 12 Superstars to reach the modern Grand Slam honor are Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Big Show, The Miz, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins.

Hardy is currently in his third run with the WWE, with his tenure first starting alongside his brother Matt Hardy in 1994. Hardy reached his high point as a singles wrestler in 2008 when he finally reached main event status with one run as WWE Champion and two reigns as World Heavyweight Champion. After an extended stay in Impact Wrestling from 2010-17, Hardy returned with Matt at WrestleMania 33 and won the Raw Tag Team Championships (their eighth tag title run with the company) in their first match back.

Hardy had been sidelined for months with a torn rotator cuff injury he suffered in September, appearing only at the RAW 25 celebration and as a cameo appearance in “The Ultimate Deletion.” He returned to action the night after WrestleMania 34, teaming up with Finn Balor and Seth Rollins to take on The Miz and Miztourage in a six-man tag match main event.

Mahal was just the first of 14 Superstars to make the jump to the Raw roster on Monday night as part of the Superstar Shake-up. Some of the other wrestlers included Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Breezango, Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, the Riott Squad, Zack Ryder, Mojo Rawley, Natalya and Drew McIntyre (making his main roster jump from NXT).

Given that WWE likes to have one of its secondary championships on each show’s roster, it’s possible Hardy gets the call to move to SmackDown on Tuesday night. The Blue Brand has already picked up one Superstar from Raw in The Miz.