10 WWE Stars Who Only Won Gold Because Of The Brand Split
8. Orlando Jordan
You can look at this one from a number of angles. Orlando Jordan was never over enough or good enough inside the ring to justify a United States Championship run, and when his run came to an end with a series of increasingly shorter matches against Chris Benoit parity was restored. If the brand split had never been a thing OJ wouldn't have had a mid-card championship run at all.
His title run was the function of a brand specific storyline. In order to add a little fuel to the fire of John Cena's ongoing feud with JBL, OJ pinned the champ for the strap. His stint with the strap had little to do with his own ability as a wrestler, and everything to do with spicing up affairs between Cena and JBL.
The roundabout truth is that without the brand split JBL would never have became WWE Champion, Orlando Jordan would never becomesa member of his cabinet, and he would never defeat Cena for the United States Championship.