5 Superstars who were one second away from becoming WWE Champion
The most prestigious title in the history of pro wrestling/sports entertainment, the WWE Championship has been held by over 50 Superstars since it was introduced in 1963.
Over the last two decades, WWE has introduced another World Championship to its programming – the World Heavyweight Championship (2002-2013) and the Universal Championship (2016-present) – but the WWE Championship is still viewed as the top title that a male WWE Superstar can win.
Nobody has had more reigns with the WWE Championship than John Cena (13), while Randy Orton (9), Triple H (9) and The Rock (8) also became synonymous with the famous title.
On the flip side, some Superstars have missed out on winning the WWE Championship by fraction of a second and they were ultimately unable to ever claim the top prize in the company.
In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who came within one second of walking away with the WWE Championship.
#5 Neville almost became WWE Champion
Neville (AEW’s PAC) had his fair share of ups and downs as a member of WWE’s main roster, but it is worth remembering that his start to life on RAW and SmackDown was very promising.
Granted, the high-flyer suffered defeats against Superstars including Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Bad News Barrett, but he was also booked in the Money in the Bank ladder match and in a high-profile match on RAW against John Cena.
In August 2015, “The Man That Gravity Forgot” answered a WWE Championship open challenge from Rollins – the WWE Champion at the time – on an episode of RAW.
Realistically, there was no way that Neville was going to defeat Rollins, especially as the former Shield member was involved in a Champion vs. Champion storyline with Cena heading into SummerSlam.
However, for one brief moment, it really did appear as though the Englishman could produce a major upset by stealing the title from Rollins.
As you can see from the 01:25 mark of the video above, Neville reversed an attempted pedigree into a pinfall. Rollins just kicked out at the last moment but the crowd clearly felt that the referee should have counted to three.
This was the closest that Neville ever came to winning WWE’s top title.