10 Best Modern Day Superstars To Never Be WWE Champion

#7 Austin Aries

The greatest man that ever lived... Everywhere but WWE

Austin Aries achieved a lifelong goal in 2016 when he finally signed with WWE. The former ROH and TNA World Champion had tried to join WWE before, but was always overlooked due to his size, even when attempting to audition for the WWE Tough Enough revival in 2011.

When Aries debuted for WWE, there were many high hopes among fans. WWE had already done a decent job with then recent former TNA signings AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, and there was hope Aries would be well utilized to. But it wasn't meant to be.

Aries did okay in NXT, but was moved permanently to 205 Live following his return from an injury, during which he had provided commentary for the show. He had some good pay-per-view matches with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, but departed WWE following their last match at Extreme Rules.

There were rumors that Aries had requested his release due to being unhappy, however Aries himself revealed that he was released from his contract because creative had nothing for him.

Dave Meltzer also revealed that Aries was said to be incredibly unpopular with WWE's writing staff and others backstage due to attitude problems, which is what led to his release.

I like to think that Aries was a big missed opportunity for WWE. I mean sure, it does seem like he allegedly having attitude problems led to his release, but he was still an incredible talent that could have at least held the NXT Championship.

Since his release, Aries has had great success on the independent scene, winning more than a dozen Championships, holding several at the same time. He also returned to Impact Wrestling and became Impact Heavyweight Champion again (on his first night back), although his return their seems to have ended again.