5 WWE Superstars who challenged for both the WWE and Universal Championships but won neither
Whenever a Superstar joins WWE, he has two major dreams. The first is to main event WrestleMania and the other is to win the most prestigious title of the company.
Earlier, there was only one WWE World Heavyweight Championship which played the role of the company's top title. However, because of the brand split in 2016, WWE had to introduce the Universal Championship so as to give a world title to each brand.
In the brief history of the Universal title, multiple Superstars have tried their luck to win the title but, very few have been successful in doing so. The same can be said of the WWE Championship. A plethora of Superstars have challenged for the title only to fall short in the main bout.
The Superstar Shakeup and the Wild Card Rule allow the Superstars to join the other brand's roster and since there are only a selective group of people who stay in the main event scene. In the past three years, a host of Superstars have challenged for both the Universal title and the WWE title.
When one battles for the top two titles of the company in a space of three years, it is almost assured that the Superstar will at least have one world title reign. But, these 5 credible challengers failed to win either one of the world championships.
#5 Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe is the first name on this unlucky list. The NXT graduate entered the Universal Championship picture in mid-2017 when he won a Fatal-5 way Extreme Rules match to become the new No.1 contender for the Universal Championship. He had a one-on-one fight with Brock Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire but, the Beast Incarnate overcame this challenge.
Joe was even a part of the Fatal-4 way Universal Championship match that main evented SummerSlam 2017 and, even had a bout with Brock Lesnar at a live event. Unfortunately, he could not win the title.
During the same time of the year in 2018, Joe went after the WWE Champion AJ Styles and also involved his family in the title feud. Despite getting multiple title matches during the course of that feud, Joe could not defeat Styles for the title.