10 Best Modern Day Superstars To Never Be WWE Champion

When you think of the greatest past WWE stars to have never been WWE Champion, the list usually reads like 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, Owen Hart, Mr. Perfect, the British Bulldog, Ted DiBiase Sr., Razor Ramon, Brian Pillman and more.

And rightfully so, as these are among the greatest superstars of all-time, let alone the greatest to have never been on top. However, over the past 10, 15 and even 20 years, I like to think that there has been another crop of very talented superstars to pass through WWE and despite having all the talent in the world, were somehow never pushed to the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship.

With so so so many incredibly talented superstars having been with WWE over the past two decades and not reach the top, I think it is time we take a look at the top 10 more modern day greatest superstars to never be a World Champion in WWE.

#10 Maven

WWE Tough Enough Season 1 male champion Maven was a very talented superstar. Unlike most talent, both winners and runners up, to get signed by WWE following Tough Enough, those who would make it to WWE TV will usually do so after about one or two years in developmental, including the like of The Miz, John Morrison, the Velveteen Dream, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and others.

Yes, they all went through developmental - all but Maven. By the time Season one of Tough Enough had aired on TV, Maven had already mastered the basics and made his WWE TV debut in late 2001. It was pretty clear early on that WWE had big plans for him as he gave arguably the best and most shocking Royal Rumble elimination in history in 2002 when he dropkicked The Undertaker over the top.

In the weeks that followed the Rumble, Maven would pin The Undertaker in a match for the WWE Hardcore Championship, and then challenged Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship the following week. Maven would go down with an injury shortly after and spent most of the rest of the year on the shelf. Maven would also be plagued by back to back injuries in 2003.

Maven was finally given his monster push back as he teamed with Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit to take on Triple H, Batista, Edge and Snitsky in the main event of Survivor Series. Although he would challenge for the World Championship on RAW, he then had a misguided heel turn that ruined his career, and he was released in 2005.

Maven has done nothing of note in wrestling since. It really is a shame because he was very talented and skilled, and good put on a great performance. I like to think that a possible Word Championship run wouldn't have been out of the question.

#9 Carlito

It seemed like WWE had big plans for the son of Carlos Colon from the very beginning. Carlito made his WWE debut on SmackDown in October 2004 as 'Carlito Caribbean Cool', and quickly showed a lot of promise with his promo work.

In even more impressive fashion, Carlito would defeat John Cena for the WWE United States Championship in his debut match. Carlito maintained this main event level style for the next year, feuding with other top stars.

During this time, Carlito would be drafted to RAW in the summer of 2005 and on his very first appearance on the A show, Carlito would defeat Shelton Benjamin for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. He would spend the remainder of the year in the main event scene, even challenging for the WWE Championship on occasion.

Things took a bad turn for Carlito upon his babyface turn in 2006. He wouldn't be featured in the main event scene at all. When he turned heel again the following year, he was quickly squashed by Triple H during their short feud. Carlito never recovered from this.

He spent the remainder of his WWE career in lower card feuds and had a couple of Tag Team Championship reigns with his brother Primo. Carlito was fired in 2010 due to refusing to go to rehab for his addiction to pain killers.

Carlito had the look, the mic skills, the right gimmick and talent to be a main event player and WWE Champion. Somehow it just didn't happen.

#8 Ted DiBiase Jr.

Like father, like son.

Ted DiBiase Sr. is one of the greatest superstars in history of WWE and arguably the best to have never been WWE Champion. In 2008, his son, Ted DiBiase Jr. debuted for WWE and looked like he had it all to become a future Heavyweight Champion. WWE did actually have major plans for DiBiase at one point to.

Even before WrestleMania 26 in 2010, their were reports that WWE were grooming him for a match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 27 in 2011, but by the time that rolled around, DiBiase's main event expectations were long gone.

DiBiasie seemed to have a promising start to his WWE career. He and Cody Rhodes became WWE World Tag Team Champions on his debut match and it wasn't long before he was sharing the ring regularly with Triple H, Batista, John Cena and more.

He and Cody soon formed The Legacy stable with Randy Orton, and it was pretty hot for a while. Many were expecting DiBiase to be the star of the group, but he was quickly defeated by Randy Orton following the group's split.

Things just went down from there. He would have forgettable feuds with R-Truth, Goldust, Daniel Bryan and former partner Cody, before leaving WWE in 2013. He retired later that year. Ted had the look and skill, but WWE just seemed to lose interest in him.

#7 Austin Aries

The greatest man that ever lived... Everywhere but WWE

Austin Aries achieved a lifelong goal in 2016 when he finally signed with WWE. The former ROH and TNA World Champion had tried to join WWE before, but was always overlooked due to his size, even when attempting to audition for the WWE Tough Enough revival in 2011.

When Aries debuted for WWE, there were many high hopes among fans. WWE had already done a decent job with then recent former TNA signings AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, and there was hope Aries would be well utilized to. But it wasn't meant to be.

Aries did okay in NXT, but was moved permanently to 205 Live following his return from an injury, during which he had provided commentary for the show. He had some good pay-per-view matches with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, but departed WWE following their last match at Extreme Rules.

There were rumors that Aries had requested his release due to being unhappy, however Aries himself revealed that he was released from his contract because creative had nothing for him.

Dave Meltzer also revealed that Aries was said to be incredibly unpopular with WWE's writing staff and others backstage due to attitude problems, which is what led to his release.

I like to think that Aries was a big missed opportunity for WWE. I mean sure, it does seem like he allegedly having attitude problems led to his release, but he was still an incredible talent that could have at least held the NXT Championship.

Since his release, Aries has had great success on the independent scene, winning more than a dozen Championships, holding several at the same time. He also returned to Impact Wrestling and became Impact Heavyweight Champion again (on his first night back), although his return their seems to have ended again.

#6 John Morrison

Tough Enough III winner and former WWE Intercontinental, Tag Team, and ECW Champion John Morrison was once set for a big main event run in WWE.

He had a great re-debut in 2005, forming one of the best WWE tag teams of the last 15 years with Joey Mercury as MNM, and later had a solid upper mid-card run where he was a 3 time Intercontinental Champion, but he was always meant for more.

Although he did become WWE ECW Champion in 2007, the belt was devalued by the time he won it and wasn't really considered a Heavyweight Championship anymore.

Morrison had proven he was could be a World Championship contender back in 2009 however, thanks to several excellent matches with Jeff Hardy, CM Punk, Edge, Chris Jericho and more, and even challenged for the World Championship on occasions.

After a year of stops and false starts in 2010, Morrison entered 2011 challenging former partner The Miz for the WWE Championship on the first RAW of 2011, and gave a great performance. He would challenge for the title again in a Triple threat Cage match in the Extreme Rules main event, and although coming up short again, still gave a great performance. Following this, things took a very bad turn.

Morrison spent several months in lower card matches, often on the losing end. His last few matches in WWE were almost squash matches, and he departed WWE at the end of the year due to needing time off for injuries to heal. He elected not to return to WWE, and has since lit up the Indy scene and had a great run in Impact Wrestling, where he is the current Impact World Champion as of this writing.

I think WWE should have utilized him much better in 2010 and pulled the trigger on him as a main event player then more than ever.

#5 Shelton Benjamin

Shelton Benjamin is an active member of the WWE roster today, although you would hardly know it due to how often he is left off the card.

Shelton Benjamin really seemed primed for big things in WWE. After a great tag team run with Charlie Haas in 2003, which included two WWE Tag Team Championship reigns, Benjamin was drafted to RAW in 2004 and made an immediate impact when he defeated Triple H two weeks in a row.

He would feud with Evolution for several months, and then defeat Chris Jericho for the WWE Intercontinental Champions at Taboo Tuesday 2004. Things were going great.

It wasn't meant to last. Although the year 2005 started off okay for him, which included being in the first Money in The Bank Ladder match at WrestleMania 21 and having one of the best WWE RAW matches ever with Shawn Michaels, things went downhill when he lost the IC title to Carlito in June. He just went further and further down the card and was soon losing matches to the like of Trevor Murdoch.

He was given a 'Mama' character, inspired by Big Momma's House, which made him look like a wimp, and although he rebounded from that by winning the Intercontinental Championship back in early 2006, his heel turn had him lose his aura of a main event player.

Although he would also capture the WWE United States Championship, WWE just didn't seem to care to push him anymore and after almost 2 years of doing next to nothing, Shelton was released by WWE in 2010.

Shelton Benjamin returned to WWE in 2017, but they haven't done much with him ever since. Benjamin in an incredible athlete and how he never became a main event player in WWE will always be a mystery.

#4 Wade Barrett

I use to love hearing Wade Barrett give Bad News, but perhaps the worst news was that of his WWE career not being as big as it really should have been.

Wade Barrett was the first winner of the original 'reality series' format of NXT. His main roster debut on RAW in 2010 was one of the biggest and most memorable debuts in wrestling history, as it was the debut of the Nexus.

The faction and angle was the hottest thing WWE had seen in quite some time and as the groups leader, it seemed Wade Barrett was primed for big things.

Unfortunately, some bad booking decisions, particularly SummerSlam 2010 and the John Cena firing angle really threw water on the Nexus fire. But what really got in the way of Barrett being WWE Champion was just some flip flopping booking. There were actually two different points in 2010 where WWE had actually considered Barrett to become WWE Champion.

The first was Bragging Rights 2010, it had been discussed as Barrett had a Championship match with WWE Champion Randy Orton. Those plans were delayed when it was decided that Barrett may win the gold in their rematch at Survivor Series instead, but for whatever reason those plans changed to and we never really found out why. Barrett would start 2011 moving from RAW to SmackDown, and with that went his main event status.

Barrett's secondary faction The Corre was a bust, and WWE then really seemed to have lost interest in pushing him. Barrett would go onto become a 5 time WWE Intercontinental Champion and King of The Ring winner, but never once again became anywhere close to being WWE Champion.

It made perfect sense for Wade Barrett as the leader of the Nexus to become WWE Champion, but somehow WWE just changed their minds on what would have been a great move.

#3 Matt Hardy

The Hardy Boyz are one the greatest tag teams in history of professional wrestling. Both Jeff and Matt Hardy have also proven that they should also be considered among the greatest solo performers in history too.

When it comes to Matt and Jeff, the focus for being the breakout star has always been on Jeff Hardy. The Charismatic Enigma was always given more opportunities to shine, while Matt was left to wallow on the likes of Sunday Night Heat.

There have been many times over his career where Matt should have been given that main event level push, but it just never came.

While he did manage to shake off performing on WWE's B shows, he never seemed to have proven himself to be a WWE Championship material star in Vince McMahon's eyes, even though he had many fans.

If Matt was to ever have received that big WWE Championship contender push, the best time would have been in 2005 after he returned to WWE following his unjust firing. Matt was red hot. He was incredibly popular and often took in the biggest reaction of the night, even over John Cena on some nights on RAW that year.

After a tremendous feud with Edge, Matt was sent packing to SmackDown. The blue show was light on players at the time, so Matt coming over should have been a real shot in the arm for everyone concerned, but it wasn't to be.

He spent the majority of 2006 putting over other talent, and was often used for comical purposes in 2007, after his reunion with brother Jeff. He would manage to become WWE ECW Champion in 2009, but the belt was long devalued by then.

Thankfully, Matt Hardy would reach the elite of TNA Impact Wrestling by becoming a 2 time TNA World Champion during his time with the company, and being able to develop his incredibly over 'Broken' character. Still though, it is a major shame he never reached the top in WWE, when he had the talent to do so.

#2 Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes had the attention of many in WWE when he debuted in 2007. He had previously been looked at by many as the rookie of the year in 2006, and had big things to come.

Cody mainly stuck to the tag team ranks during his first couple years in WWE, having various Tag Teams Championship reigns with Hardcore Holly, Ted DiBiase Jr. and Drew McIntyre. And while The Legacy faction of he and DiBiase with Randy Orton was pretty hot for a while, all the focus remained on Orton, and when it did come to he and Ted, it seemed like WWE was more interested in pushing DiBiase.

Cody did later find some success, as a 2 time WWE Intercontinental Champion and a well received tag team with brother Goldust, where they also became 2 time Tag Team Champions, but as a solo star, he was still being wasted, especially when performing as Stardust.

Cody left WWE in 2016 and has since become arguably the biggest name in wrestling outside of WWE, becoming the ROH World Champion, NWA World Champion and a Vice President of the new All Elite Wrestling promotion.

As Cody and the late Dusty Rhodes had said, WWE had several times to go all the way with Cody, but just didn't. Cody would have made a great WWE Champion.

#1 Mr. Kennedy

Could have been the next face of the company

Mr. Kennedy/Anderson was someone who many within WWE, including Vince McMahon himself, looked at to be the future of WWE, but it wasn't meant to be.

Kennedy debuted for WWE in 2005 and showed immediate potential. He was a very talented performer, very capable of putting on a solid match, but his true niche was his skills on the microphone. Upon arriving in WWE, he quickly became the best talker in the company and the best talker since The Rock.

He had a good run on the mid-card. He held the WWE United States Championship and scored victories over The Undertaker, Batista, Booker T, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit and more, all within a very short space of time.

WWE had big plans for him being in the main event. It almost seemed like the World Championship was guaranteed to be his as he won the Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 23.

However, during his run with WWE, Kennedy would be plagued with injuries, and not just any kind of injuries, but back to back ones that made him miss considerable amounts of time, and they would force him to give up his Money in The Bank shot.

While Vince McMahon still thought rather highly of him upon his return from his 2007 injury and planned for him to be revealed as his 'illegitimate son', it was apparently Triple H who reportedly got in Vince's ear, convincing him that Kennedy wasn't the right guy to lead the company in the future.

Kennedy spent the next 2 years having various injures and wrestling in the mid-card, before he was fired by WWE after being deemed reckless in the ring by John Cena and Randy Orton. Kennedy resurfaced in TNA in 2010 and would be featured prominently in the main event scene and become a 2 time TNA World Heavyweight Champion during his on and off four year run with the company.

Still though, I think Mr. Kennedy is easily the biggest missed opportunity to be a huge star and WWE Champion over the last number of years.