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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.
#4 James Ellsworth almost became WWE Champion
After impressing Vince McMahon with his performance as an enhancement talent against Braun Strowman in 2016, James Ellsworth returned to WWE television later in the year to play a role in the WWE Championship rivalry between AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose on SmackDown.
In October 2016, Ellsworth defeated Styles in a non-title match after Ambrose abused his power as the special guest referee by attacking “The Phenomenal One”. Daniel Bryan, SmackDown’s General Manager at the time, then informed Ellsworth on Talking Smack that he would challenge for the WWE Championship one week later.
The match was full of shenanigans, as you would expect, with Ambrose providing distractions from ringside throughout the 12-minute encounter.
From the 02:00 mark of WWE’s video above, you can see that there was one stage during the match when Ellsworth took advantage of an Ambrose distraction by causing his opponent to fall face-first into the turnbuckle.
Ellsworth followed up with his No Chin Music superkick but Styles was able to just kick out before the 3-count.
In the end, Styles got himself disqualified by repeatedly punching Ellsworth in the corner of the ring. Two months later, the WWE Champion went on to win a rematch in more convincing fashion, with Ellsworth losing in less than a minute.
#3 Wade Barrett almost became WWE Champion
WWE Superstars usually appear on television for several years before working their way into WWE Championship storylines. In Wade Barrett’s case, however, he was immediately booked in the main-event picture following The Nexus’ debut in 2010.
The former Nexus leader competed in WWE Championship matches at Night of Champions (Six-Pack Challenge), Bragging Rights (vs. Randy Orton) and Survivor Series (vs. Randy Orton).
The stipulation for the Bragging Rights match stated that John Cena would have been fired if Barrett won. This led to a unique finish, with Cena attacking Barrett to cause a disqualification, meaning he kept his job and Orton remained WWE Champion.
At Survivor Series, the match revolved around Cena once again, with the stipulation stating that “Big Match John” would be fired if Orton won. If Barrett won, Cena would be freed from The Nexus.
As it turned out, Orton retained his WWE Championship following help from special guest referee Cena, but Barrett still came very close to picking up the victory on numerous occasions.
Barrett lost a rematch one night later on RAW and he never competed for the WWE Championship again.
#2 Rusev almost became WWE Champion
While WWE took advantage of the “Yes Movement” and “KofiMania” phenomenons, it is fair to say that the company did not fully capitalize on Rusev’s “Rusev Day” craze in 2017-2018.
At the start of 2018, the three-time United States Champion received some of the loudest babyface reactions on the entire WWE roster, despite the fact that he was supposed to be a heel.
With Aiden English and Lana by his side, Rusev gradually turned into a babyface throughout 2018, but he was still booked in matches against good guys for the first half of the year.
Rusev’s biggest opportunity came at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view in July 2018 when he challenged AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. The match outcome seemed obvious, despite Rusev’s overwhelming popularity, and Styles retained his title following a mistake from English.
Towards the end of the match, Rusev connected with a Machka Kick on his opponent, almost earning a 3-count, before Styles landed a 450 splash and Phenomenal Forearm to pick up the win.
#1 R-Truth almost became WWE Champion
It is hard to believe that WWE’s top comedy character was once a serious contender for the WWE Championship, but R-Truth’s villainous persona was very different in 2011 to how it is now.
Back then, Truth had been involved in two matches related to World Championships – a six-man Elimination Chamber match and an eight-man Money in the Bank ladder match – but he had never challenged for WWE’s top title.
In June 2011, the Capitol Punishment pay-per-view saw Truth receive the biggest chance of his career when he challenged John Cena for the WWE Championship in the main event.
Like many of the examples in this list, Truth was unlikely to dethrone Cena as WWE Champion, but he still had a couple of close pinfalls which had the crowd believing that he could produce a shock victory.
In the end, a young Cena fan threw a drink in Truth’s face at ringside, allowing “The Face That Runs The Place” to follow up with an Attitude Adjustment to retain his title.
