5 AEW stars who should have won the WWE Championship - Former AEW Champion, Hall of Famer
The birth of AEW has well and truly played a major part in the rise of wrestling outside WWE. In their two-year lifespan, AEW has risen to rival WWE as the top promotion in North America. Its frequent collaborative efforts have also helped carve the way for other promotions on the rise, such as GCW.
Before the birth of AEW, talent that struggled to find their worth in WWE would have to work the unpredictable independent circuit. WWE used to represent the Premier League of professional wrestling, with no other destination offering the prestige of Vince McMahon's promotion.
However, with AEW and the independent scene growing, talents that don't fit the mold in WWE have a landing pad where they can truly show what they are capable of and craft a successful and acclaimed career.
Names like Aleister Black and Andrade have emerged in AEW following their WWE departure. In fact, AEW currently has over thirty former WWE stars on their books. A handful of names have jumped from WWE to AEW with the WWE Championship on their resume, including Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley.
But who on the AEW roster could have been a WWE Champion in an alternate timeline? There have been many potential WWE Champions who have walked through the doors of AEW, let's take a look at five.
#5 WWE Hall of Famer turned AEW legend Sting
BREAKING NEWS: @Sting will be at #Raw and open the show this Monday at 8/7c on @USA_Network!!! http://t.co/IbmwEXq8bJ
As an icon of WCW, it never seemed like Sting was going to make his way to WWE. After WWE defeated WCW and consumed its rival, Sting was a name many expected to make the jump and carve a new legacy with WWE. Instead, Sting opted to go with TNA, who sought to fill the void left by WCW.
Sting would enjoy a successful career with the promotion, but TNA failed to live up to the hype. In 2014, Sting made his debut at Survivor Series to assist Dolph Ziggler in ousting the Authority from WWE. The debut cemented Sting as a vigilante from the off, meshing well with his status as the WCW talent that had long eluded WWE. But after his hyped debut, it was a downhill spiral.
Despite forever being touted as the WrestleMania dream match, WrestleMania 31 saw Sting face Triple H instead of The Undertaker. This turned out to be an overbooked WCW vs WWE angle featuring D-X and the NWO. Triple H defeated Sting in his WWE in-ring debut, and the Icon was absent until his return to feud with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the time Seth Rollins. Sting vs Seth Rollins was presented as Sting's attempt at capturing the championship that had so far escaped him.
On an episode of RAW he would earn his first win by DQ against Big Show, before winning a tag match against Show and Rollins alongside John Cena. His only shot at the WWE Title ended with a defeat at Night of Champions 2015 in defeat. This also turned out to be the final outing for Sting in WWE.
We have since been treated to the return of Sting in AEW, as he is a mentor figure and tag partner to Darby Allin. Sting has proved he still has remarkable wrestling talent despite his age. As an icon of not only WCW but wrestling, it can be considered criminal that Sting never had a run as WWE Champion. It will always be a shame that Sting didn't join WWE sooner, as he almost certainly would have slotted seamlessly into the main event scene of 2000s WWE.