5 WWE Title matches from this decade you might not remember
We are in the final few months of the 2010s, and what a decade it has been. While the WWE product has not been at its best, like in the previous decade, there has been a plethora of matches, moments and stories that will remain a major part of the company's storied history. Some of them include CM Punk's monumental victory over John Cena in Chicago, the end of the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak and the first-ever women's WrestleMania main event.
With that being said, there have also been many bizarre happenings on WWE programming. Much like every other decade, the 2010s have seen some weird stuff happen in this crazy world of sports entertainment, some of which you might not even remember.
There have been quite a few WWE Championship matches featuring some out of left field names, ones that you would not necessarily expect to see compete for the biggest title in the company's history.
Here are five one-on-one WWE Championship matches that happened in the 2010s which you may have forgotten about.
#5 AJ Styles vs James Ellsworth (SmackDown 2016)
At the beginning of the second brand split in 2016, SmackDown became a consistently great program to watch. From the road to SummerSlam up until WrestleMania 33, the blue brand was mostly excellent. One of the reasons why that was the case was the fact that the entire roster was utilised effectively. It genuinely was the Land of Opportunity. One of these opportunities fell to the way of an actual jobber by the name of James Ellsworth.
He had been squashed by Braun Strowman, but impressed WWE officials in the way he did it. Ellsworth got a run on Smackdown shortly after, becoming a part of the WWE Championship storyline between AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose.
He even got multiple victories over the Phenomenal One, with heavy assistance from the current Jon Moxley. This would lead to a couple of title matches, one of which saw him come a second within winning the WWE title. It almost became a joke that went too far.