5 forgotten WWE Championship challengers from the 2010s

The WWE Championship is considered to be a sacred title in the world of professional wrestling, and that's been the case for well over 50 years now. However, there have been times as of late when challengers have competed for the illustrious belt, and a few years on, fans are left looking at the record books thinking "Really? THEY were in a WWE Championship match?".

That doesn't mean that the guys we're about to list are bad, and it's actually quite the contrary - they're all extremely talented. Still, when you look back at the names, it's odd to think of them as main eventers given that most of them have spent their WWE careers in the mid-card.

So with that being said, here are five forgotten WWE Championship challengers from the 2010s.

#5 Zack Ryder

We aren't going to sugarcoat this: Zack Ryder's run in the last few years has been incredibly disappointing. In the wake of WrestleMania 32, where he won the Intercontinental Championship, it genuinely felt like Mr. Woo Woo Woo himself was on track to becoming a future main eventer with WWE.

Alas, that didn't come to fruition, but he did actually get a WWE Championship shot years prior to his crowning moment in Dallas. It came against Raw's top heel Sheamus who was enjoying his second reign with the belt, as he claimed that because he was defending the belt against Ryder, it meant he didn't have to defend it at Night of Champions.

Of course, he did, in a Six-Pack Challenge.