Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (Ring of Honor)

Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (Ring of Honor)

February 14, 2022

By Ryan Porzl

2022 will be a big year in the wrestling business as many companies, past and present, will be celebrating huge anniversaries so I will be doing many of these lists for promotions like ROH, New Japan, ECW, Impact, and All Japan this year. This February will mark 20 years for Ring of Honor, a great milestone. This will be the first of a series of articles coming up that will celebrate ROH. In this article, we will continue my series of articles of wrestlers who you didn't know or forgot held a title. Obviously, ROH has a rich history with the likes of Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Jay Lethal, Kevin Owens (Steen), Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, and CM Punk but there's so many more where that came from and we'll take a look at them.

Jamie Noble (James Gibson)

Title Held: ROH World Championship

Let's start with one that really flew under the radar. Most know Jamie Noble for his runs in WCW and WWE during the 2000s, where he had multiple runs as cruiserweight champion in the latter promotion while currently enjoying a run as a road agent behind the scenes and during which, appeared as part of Seth Rollins J & J Security stooge team. However, in between Noble's two WWE runs he enjoyed a cup of coffee in various promotions from 2004-2005 including PWG, IWA: Mid-South, FIP, New Japan and ROH. Using his real name "James Gibson", Noble had a short nine month run (well, short compared to most on this list) in ROH from February to October 2005 and while the run was short, he did make it count and struck gold. On August 12, 2005 at Redemption, Noble defeated the departing champion CM Punk as well as Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels in a four way elimination match to win the ROH World Championship. Due to the fact Noble already signed a contract to return to WWE, his title reign wouldn't last as he made three defenses as he went a no contest against Homicide and Spanky (Brian Kendrick), then retained against Spanky one-on-one, and finally against Colt Cabana before losing the championship to Bryan Danielson on September 17th at Glory By Honor IV. At 36 days, Noble earned the record for shortest ROH World Championship reign until 2017 when Kyle O'Relly lost it at 33 days.

Shingo (left) with Naruki Doi

Shingo Takagi

Title Held: ROH World Tag Team Championship

This feels like another lifetime ago. Most fans outside of Japan are probably discovering Shingo in recent years due to his big run in New Japan Pro Wrestling as he's enjoyed runs as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and NEVER Openweight Champion. However, prior to his big New Japan run, Shingo originally came from the Dragon Gate promotion where he also enjoyed huge success including multiple runs as the Open the Dream Gate Champion (Dragon Gate's top championship). While there, Dragon Gate had a relationship with Ring of Honor in the 2000s which resulted in Shingo making appearances for the promotion from 2006-2007. In early 2007, Shingo would eventually join with fellow DG talent Naruki Doi and the two would form a tag team while pursuing the tag team championship. On March 3rd, the duo would defeat The Briscoe Brothers at Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. The win actually resulted in a brief Japanese dominance in ROH as fellow countryman Takeshi Morishima won the ROH World Championship weeks earlier meaning both ROH belts were held by Japanese wrestlers. In the end, Shingo and Doi would also have a short reign as they defended the titles once as they retained over No Remorse Corp. members Roderick Strong and Davey Richards before dropping the belts back to The Briscoes at All Star Extravaganza III on March 30th.

Doug Williams

Titles Held: ROH Pure Championship

Doug Williams is a true journeyman and legend in British Wrestling. Originally achieving big success in his home country for promotions like Frontier Wrestling Alliance before traveling the world where he competed in Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan and many promotions in the United States including ROH, OVW, NWA, and Impact, where he's perhaps best known to American fans for his work in the latter. Williams first came to be known in America for being a star during the early years of ROH engaging in rivalries with Christopher Daniels and being one of many to challenge Samoa Joe for the ROH World Championship as well as competing to be the inaugural champion in 2002. In early 2004, ROH would create the Pure Championship with AJ Styles becoming inaugural champion but would be stripped of the championship after TNA pulled him from further ROH shows due to the Rob Feinstein controversy after the ROH co-founder was caught in a sting operation. Needing a new champion, a tournament would take place which Williams would enter and emerged victorious at ROH Reborn: Completion on July 17, 2004 defeating Alex Shelley in the finals. Williams would hold the belt for only a month and a half successfully defending against Shelley and Austin Aries at ROH shows as well as in Europe against Claudio Castagnoli (the future Cesaro) before losing it to John Walters at ROH Scramble Cage Melee on August 28th.

Corino (left) with Jimmy Jacobs

Steve Corino

Titles Held: ROH World Tag Team Championship

The former King of Old School is a well traveled veteran having competed from ECW to ROH to Impact to ZERO1 to his current occupation as a WWE/NXT trainer. Corino has been a big part of ROH's history, especially their early years as he called some of their early shows including their debut show The Era of Honor Begins on February 23, 2002 while also leading one of ROH's first stables: The Group which feuded with Christopher Daniels' stable The Prophecy and also having an on again/off-again violent feud with Homicide. For years, titles eluded Corino in ROH but all that changed in 2012 after Corino not only returned to ROH but aligned with Kevin Steen (Kevin Owens) and Jimmy Jacobs in the stable S.C.U.M. In the summer of 2012, the ROH World Tag Team Championships would be vacated following the departure of Kenny King and a tournament would take place to crown new champions with Corino participating along with Jacobs. At Death Before Dishonor X on September 15th, Corino and Jacobs would take on Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals and left the event with the gold. Corino and Jacobs would hold the titles for three months fending off challenges from Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team, BJ Whitmer & Rhett Titus, and The Briscoe Brothers before losing them to the Briscoes in a triple threat match (also involving Alexander & Coleman) at Final Battle 2012 on December 16th.

        

Sami Zayn (El Generico)

Titles Held: ROH World Television Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship

Wrestler Rami Sebei is a man of several characters in professional wrestling. For nearly a decade, he's been best known as the lovable underdog babyface turned conspiracy theorist heel Sami Zayn where he's achieved success in NXT and the WWE winning the NXT Championship once and the WWE Intercontinental Championship three times. In another lifetime, he was known as a masked man named "The Generic Luchador" El Generico. As Generico, he became a journeyman competing in promotions such as IWS, CZW, CHIKARA, PWG, WxW, and DDT enjoying success everywhere and winning gold in almost every promotion. However, his biggest mark during this time was in Ring of Honor competing there from 2005-2012. Generico first became known for his tag team with longtime friend/turned future rival Kevin Steen (Kevin Owens) where, by 2007, were one of ROH's most popular tag teams having many title matches with the Briscoe Brothers and The Age of the Fall.

At Driven 2008 on September 19, 2008, after chasing the World Tag Team Championship for a year, Generico and Steen would finally walk away with the gold when they defeated The Age of the Fall combo of Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black (Seth Rollins). The two would hold the titles for seven months, successfully defending against AOTF combo of Jacobs and Delirious, the Briscoes, The American Wolves, and Kenny King & Rhett Titus (All Night Express) until losing the titles on April 10, 2009 to the Wolves on an episode of ROH on HDNet.

Several years later, Generico would return to champion status when he took on and defeated Christopher Daniels to win the ROH World Television Championship at Best in the World 2011 on June 26, 2011. However, he wouldn't make any successful title defenses and dropped the championship only 48 days later to Jay Lethal during an episode of ROH TV on August 13th (aired October 1st).

Low-Ki

Titles Held: ROH World Championship

Quick. Name me the first ROH World Champion. No, not Samoa Joe. No, not Bryan Danielson. No, not Christopher Daniels. The answer is Low-Ki. Ki has been a successful journeyman since the 2000s enjoying success in promotions like ROH, TNA/Impact, and MLW as well as New Japan and ZERO1 in the Orient winning many championships and having his share of great and memorable matches. In Ring of Honor, he is considered one of ROH's founding fathers along with Danielson and Daniels due to them main eventing the first ROH show in history which was The Era of Honor begins back on February 23, 2002 (which Ki ended up winning). Afterwards, Ki became a regular for ROH during their early years and it would be during this time where he made history. On July 27, 2002, at Crowning A Champion, Ki competed against Daniels, Doug Williams, and Spanky in a fatal four way, 60 minute iron man match. Which ever wrestler had the most decisions after sixty minutes would be crowned the inaugural ROH World Champion. In the end, Ki would be the one to make history by becoming the inaugural champion as he scored two decisions to Daniels' one and Williams & Spanky's zero. Despite making history, Ki wouldn't last as champion, only holding the championship for two months and only made one successful title defense against AJ Styles. Eventually, he lost the belt to Xavier at Unscripted on September 21st.

Will Ospreay

Titles Held: ROH World Television Championship

Ospreay's story is like Shingo in that he enjoyed good success for years in his home country as well as making appearances all over the world before his career exploded in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and achieved his biggest fame. Also, like Shingo, before his big New Japan run, Ospreay made appearances for Ring of Honor and held an ROH championship. During ROH's 2016 UK tour, Ospreay challenged ROH World Television Champion Bobby Fish for the championship on the first night of the tour on November 18, 2016 and would go on to defeat him to win the title. Unfortunately for Ospreay, his title reign didn't last as he would drop the championship only two days later on his first defense to Marty Scurll. At two days, Ospreay has the shortest Television Championship reign in ROH history.

Red (right) with AJ Styles

Amazing Red

Titles Held: ROH World Tag Team Championship

A talented flyer, Amazing Red was one of the most exciting wrestlers of the 2000s where he shined in promotions like ROH and Impact during both companies early years excelling as a tag team wrestler in both and a pioneer in Impact's X Division winning that championship numerous times. Sadly, his career probably didn't have the longevity it should've thanks in part to injuries but he still made his mark in the business and acquired his share of championships including a run as ROH World Tag Team Champion in a dream team with AJ Styles. On March 15, 2003 at Expect the Unexpected, Red teamed with Styles to challenge Prophecy members Christopher Daniels and Xavier (replacing Donovan Morgan) for the ROH World Tag Team Championship and ended up winning the match and the championships. Red and Styles would hold the titles for five months making three successful title defenses during the spring and summer all against The Briscoe Brothers before Red suffered a knee injury which eventually forced them to vacate the titles on August 20th.

Kushida

Titles Held: ROH World Television Championship

Kushida is another guy who's gained a lot of fame over the years. Nowadays, he's best known for appearing in the WWE developmental promotion NXT where he formally held the Cruiserweight Championship. Prior to that, he became best known in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he spent years as the company's junior ace holding the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship many times. During his New Japan run, the promotion had a relationship with Ring of Honor which Kushida and his trophy case benefited from. On May 14, 2017, Kushida would defeat Marty Scurll to win the ROH World Television Championship. With that title win, it would actually be the first non-New Japan championship Kushida won in his career. After winning it, Kushida would hold the championship for four months fending off challenges against the likes of Scurll, Jay White, Kenny King, CMLL's Titan, Dalton Castle, and Hiromu Takahashi before eventually losing the championship to King at Death Before Dishonor XV on September 22, 2017.

Cesaro (left) with Chris Hero

Cesaro (Claudio Castagnoli)

Titles Held: ROH World Tag Team Championship (2x)

Like some on this list, this also feels like a lifetime ago. To most, Cesaro is best known for his near decade run in NXT/WWE where he's usually earned a loyal and strong fanbase, especially among the "smart" fans. While a former United States Champion, Cesaro has proven to be a tag team specialist winning a half-dozen tag team championships during his WWE run with the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura, Tyson Kidd, and his tag team The Bar with Sheamus. So because of that, it probably wouldn't surprise many that Cesaro was a successful tag team wrestler in other promotions. Prior to his WWE run, Cesaro was best known under his real name Claudio Castagnoli and achieved his biggest success with Chris Hero (the former Kassius Ohno in NXT) in the tag team The Kings of Wrestling where they held gold in promotions such as CHIKARA and CZW but along the way, came to Ring of Honor where they held those titles as well.

The first time the Kings tastes ROH gold would on September 16, 2006 when they defeated the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong as Glory By Honor V: Night Two to win the ROH World Tag Team Championships. They would hold the belts for a little over two months where they fended off challenges against the likes of Aries and Strong in various rematches as well as Jimmy Jacobs and Colt Cabana and against Ruckus and Human Tornado of BLKOut during a CZW appearances. After 70 days, The KoW would finally lose the titles to Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal at ROH Dethroned on November 25th.

Our story doesn't end here because three and a half years later, the Kings of Wrestling would once again reign supreme. On April 3, 2010 at ROH's The Big Bang, Cesaro and Hero would go on to defeat the Briscoe Brothers to begin their second reign as ROH World Tag Team Champions. This title reign would prove far more successful as Cesaro and Hero held the gold for over 363 days, which became the longest reign in the history of the belts for years to come (The Foundation's Jay Lethal and Jonathan Greshem now have the longest reign at 442 days). During the reign, they defended against all of ROH's top teams including The Briscoes, The All Night Express, The Dark City Fight Club, and The American Wolves, among others before dropping the championships to Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team at Honor Takes Center Stage: Night One on April 1, 2011.

Angelina Love

Titles Held: Women of Honor World Championship

Angelina Love has been one of the most successful women's wrestlers in the last 15 years. After being released from a WWE developmental contract, Angelina found herself in Impact Wrestling where she had a Hall of Fame on and off ten year run from 2007-2017 where she was one of the first knockouts upon the establishment of the division, The Beautiful People was one of the most memorable acts in Impact history, enjoyed six runs as Knockouts World Champion, and one run as Knockouts World Tag Team Champion. After her big run ended, Angelina eventually found herself in Ring of Honor in 2019 where she joined with Mandy Leon and briefly reunited with Velvet Sky in a Beautiful People type act called "The Allure". However, the act wasn't the only thing Angelina brought to ROH but also her past success. On September 27, 2019, at Death Before Dishonor 2019, Angelina would defeat Kelly Klein to win the Women of Honor World Championship (ROH's original version of the Women's Championship). However, Angelina wouldn't hold the championship for long, though she did make one successful title defense in a three way against Jenny Rose and Sumie Sakai before losing the championship 15 days in her reign back to Klein at Glory By Honor NOLA on October 12th.

AJ Styles

Titles Held: ROH Pure Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship

"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles is a man who will go down in history as one of wrestling's greatest legends and someone who could be argued is in the running for "best in the world" during the 2000s to early 2010s. For the most part, Styles' career can be split into three parts: his first would be his eleven and a half year run with Impact Wrestling (then TNA) where he was unquestionably "Mr. TNA" and the face of the promotion for the first decade thanks to all the history making moments he achieved and the incredible matches and moments he was apart of. His second would be his short but sweet two year run in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he enjoyed runs as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, was the second leader of their hottest stable Bullet Club, and was their top foreigner or gaijin. Finally, there's his later career run in WWE where despite his age and being past his prime has shined with big rivalries and two runs as WWE Champion. However, during his Hall of Fame career, Styles was also a regular for ROH, especially during their early years and made history in ROH as well.

As mentioned, Styles would form a dream team with Amazing Red in early 2003 and it would be there where Styles first held an ROH Championship when they defeated Christopher Daniels and ROH World Champion Xavier (filling in for Donovan Morgan) on March 15, 2003 at ROH Expect the Unexpected. Styles and Red held the gold for five months making three successful title defenses against the Briscoes between March and July. Then in August, Red would go down with a knee injury, resulting in Styles teaming with Homicide as a substitute partner and successfully making a fourth title defense against Daniels and Dan Maff before they had to vacate the titles.

Styles wouldn't stop there. In early 2004, ROH would create a new secondary title called the ROH Pure Championship and Styles would enter a tournament to crown the inaugural champion. On February 14, 2004 at ROH's Second Anniversary Show, Styles faced CM Punk in the finals for the championship and emerged victorious thus making ROH history. In the end, Styles held the title for three months making one successful title defense against Punk in a rematch. Unfortunately, his title loss had nothing to do with injury or booking but other circumstances. As mentioned earlier, in March 2004, ROH owner and co-founder Rob Feinstein would be involved in a sting operation where he was accused of trying to meet a 14 year old boy. Due to this massive scandal, Feinstein resigned from ROH and many companies pulled their talent out of ROH temporarily including TNA who had Styles under contract thus resulting in the second straight title reign of Styles ending due to vacancy which occurred on May 22, 2004.

Jerry Lynn

Titles Held: ROH World Championship

Jerry Lynn is undoubtably one of the most talented and respected journeymen of the last 30 years. Originally achieving success in the indy circuit and the GWF, Lynn made appearances in WWF, WCW, and New Japan before finally getting his big break in ECW with his series of matches against Justin Credible and Rob Van Dam while also winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. After ECW, he had short but decent run in WWF before having a big run during the early years of Impact as one of the pioneers of their X Division. By 2008, Lynn already had a successful career in the books at 45 years old but in 2009, he showed he wasn't done just yet. On Apri1 3, 2009, at Supercard of Honor IV, Lynn challenged long reigning ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness for the ROH World Championship and to the surprise of many, would score the win and his first world championship in almost a decade. After winning the championship, Lynn would hold it for two months but became a busy champion as he retained over the likes of Bryan Danielson, D-Lo Brown, Erick Stevens, Roderick Strong, Tyler Black (Seth Rollins), Austin Aries, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, and Jay Briscoe. Eventually, the Cinderella story would end on June 13th at Manhattan Mayhem III when Lynn lost the championship to Aries in a triple threat match also involving Black.

Tomohiro Ishii

Titles Held: ROH World Television Championship

Ishii is one of the more beloved late bloomers in the business. Originally turning pro in 1996 and trained by legends Genichiro Tenryu and Riki Choshu, Ishii had minor success in Tenryu's WAR before making his way to New Japan by 2006 where, for years, he was considered one of the most underrated and underappreciated talents in the business until the early 2010s when success and acclaim finally came his way. Considered one of New Japan's best wrestlers of the last decade, he's dominated the promotion's NEVER Openweight Championship while also enjoying runs as IWGP Tag Team Champion and NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champion. His success would also translate to other promotions like the British promotion Revolution Pro and in ROH where he would capture championships. At the ROH/New Japan Honor Rising: Japan 2016 tour on February 19, 2016, Ishii would face and defeat Roderick Strong to capture the ROH World Television Championship. After winning the championship, Ishii would make three successful title defenses, retaining against Bobby Fish and Strong in a three way, then against Cedric Alexander, and then at a New Japan show against EVIL before losing the championship to Fish on May 8th at ROH/New Japan Global Wars 2016.

Seth Rollins (Tyler Black)

Titles Held: ROH World Heavyweight Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship (2x)

I questioned putting this one in since I figured everybody knows Rollins was in ROH but it's been more than ten years so why not? In modern times, Seth Rollins is one of the top stars in the WWE and perhaps the wrestling business. He's also one of their most decorated stars having held championships in Florida Championship Wrestling, NXT, and WWE including becoming the inaugural NXT Champion in 2012 as well as having both the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship two times each. Prior to his days as "Seth Rollins", he was known as "Tyler Black" and had the same success in the indy circuit winning championships in FIP, AAW, IWA: Mid-South, and PWG but his biggest success came in Ring of Honor. Debuting in 2007, Black originally came in as a member of Jimmy Jacobs' Age of the Fall before eventually branching out on his own and won the most championships out of everyone on this list.

Black would first win a championship when he teamed with Jimmy Jacobs to defeat the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at Final Battle 2007 on December 30, 2007. Black would only hold the championship for less than a month and made only one successful title defense, retaining in an Ultimate Endurance match against The Briscoes, BJ Whitmer and Brent Albright of the Hangman 3, and Jack Evans and Jigsaw of The Vulture Squad. Eventually, they lost the titles in another Ultimate Endurance match to Davey Richards and Rocky Romero of The No Remorse Corp. while The Hangman 3 and Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson were the other participants at Without Remorse on January 26, 2008.

Less than six months later, the titles would be declared vacant by The Briscoes which resulted in a tournament being made to crown new champions. At Up For Grabs on June 6, 2008. Black and Jacobs would face Kevin Steen and El Generico in the finals and walked away with the belts, marking Black's second reign. Black would hold the titles longer this time at three and a half months while making three successful title defenses against the likes of Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson, the Pro Wrestling NOAH team of Naomichi Marufuji and Go Shiozaki, and The Briscoes before finally losing them to Steen and Generico at Driven 2008 on September 19, 2008.

Finally, Black would eventually go out on his own and pursue the ROH World Championship. On February 13, 2008, at ROH 8th Anniversary Show, Black would finally get his hands on ROH's most prestigious gold when he defeated Austin Aries. Black would hold the championship for seven months fending off challenges against Aries, Roderick Strong, Chris Hero, Davey Richards, Kenny King, and Kevin Steen until losing the championship to Strong at Glory By Honor IX on September 11th. The match would be Black's last in ROH before his big WWE run.