There is a lot to like about a person with an attitude; they may get annoying to some, but they are always someone people talk about.
One guy who is exactly like that would be ROH (Ring of Honor) Champion Austin Aries. The man made history recently by becoming the first wrestler ever to be a two-time ROH World Champion after he beat Jerry Lynn.
Aries is great both in the ring and on the mic, and probably one of the best heels in professional wrestling today, even more so than WWE's Edge, Jericho, or Orton. I know, shocking, right?
What I think is so shocking, is that Aries has only been wrestling for nine years. He started training back in early 2000 and made his debut in November of that year.
By 2004, he had made his way to ROH.
This was a big jump for Aries and he made the most of it, quickly. Although he lost his first match with ROH at Reborn Stage 2, he impressed a lot of the ROH management.
He soon formed a stable with now-TNA talent Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans. They called themselves Generation Next.
This stable wanted to get respect right away, and instead of earning their spot like others, they just planned on taking them. The idea of having these young talents come in and demand respect and make you want to hate them was great.
What stunk so bad for fans, though, was that you really couldn't hate them despite the fact they were heels. They were so good in the ring and incredibly entertaining, therefore making you actually want to see them every time.
He kind of reminds me of Randy Orton in the sense that, yes, he is a heel, but you always want to see him every week anyway.
Generation Next really took over ROH for some time. In fact, in December 2004 at Final Battle 2004, Austin Aries won the ROH World Championship from the then-longest reigning ROH World Champion, Samoa Joe.
This was around the time Samoa Joe left for TNA; therefore, ROH had to have him drop the title.
After holding the ROH Title for six months of non-stop defenses, mostly international, Aries dropped the title to CM Punk.
Punk didn't hold the title too long himself, as he left for the WWE a little while later. This was the time that Aries took over as head trainer for ROH's wrestling school, replacing Punk.
Aries didn't have to wait to long to get gold back around his waist, as he won the ROH tag titles with GN partner Roderick Strong from Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke at Final Battle 2005.
On Sept. 16, 2006, he and Strong lost the tag titles to Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli.
In 2005, Aries had signed with TNA, because ROH lets their wrestlers go to other promotions while still under contract with them.
What was so weird in many people's eyes was that he was able to compete in both, especially because TNA was still a part of the NWA. In any case he worked for both, more so with TNA.
He managed to get into Kevin Nash's faction of Paparazzi Productions, making him a mainstay in TNA, so ROH took him off of a lot of their events they could have used him in.
Then, all of a sudden, in May of 2007 ROH signed a PPV deal with G-Funk Sports and Entertainment.
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