 At the beginning of No Mercy , Mr. McMahon awarded Orton the WWE Championship after Cena vacated it due to injury the previous week , cutting their feud short . Orton lost the title to Triple H in the opening match . In the main event , Orton defeated Triple H in a Last Man Standing match to regain the title . Orton then restarted his feud with Shawn Michaels , who returned on the October 8 Raw and Superkicked him . Michaels was chosen by fan voting over Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy to meet Orton in a title match at Cyber Sunday . Orton was disqualified when he low blowed Michaels , but retained the title . Orton won a rematch at Survivor Series after hitting Michaels with the RKO . Per stipulation , if Michaels had used Sweet Chin Music , he 'd have lost and never had another chance at the title , and if Orton was disqualified , he would have lost the title . Orton then feuded with Jeff Hardy , and defeated him in a title match at the Royal Rumble . He then restarted his feud with John Cena , who had returned from injury to win the 2008 Royal Rumble match . Instead of taking his title shot at WrestleMania XXIV , as Rumble winners typically do , Cena took it at No Way Out and defeated Orton , who intentionally got himself disqualified to retain the title . At WrestleMania , Orton retained the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat match over Cena and Triple H , by pinning Cena after Triple H Pedigreed him . 
