Charisma. Explosiveness. It’s all words that can be perfectly associated with one man. One man whom many may call “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”. I’m speaking of course, about the one, the only, Austin Aries.
*Yep. That Just Happened*
Austin Aries, real name Daniel Solwood Jr., began his pro wrestling career in early 2000 when he started training under Eddie Sharkey and Terry Fox. His debut came mere months later when he faced “Sherriff” Johnny Emrald. Aries would then travel the Midwest, wrestling for small companies for the next 4 years, until Ring of Honor took notice and quickly signed Austin to a talent contract. Aries would make his debut for Ring of Honor on April 24th, 2004 in a 4 Corner Survival Match, which pitted Aries against Rocky Romero, Jimmy Rave, and the winner of that match, Nigel McGuiness. Aries was scheduled to return to ROH for another show on May 22nd that featured a one night only tournament that would feature young, up and coming talent in ROH. Plans would change however, as Aries was drafted to a stable that saw Aries align himself with Alex Shelly, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans, forming the stable known as Generation Next. Generation Next would take all of those spots in the tournament and even took their stable name from the name of ROH’s event that evening.
Generation Next would continue to team together and gain one huge addition to their family when, on December 26th, 2004, Aries was the first man to beat the then longest reigning ROH World Champion in history, Samoa Joe. Aries’ title success also granted him the spot as head trainer at the Ring of Honor Wrestling School, replacing CM Punk when Punk agreed to sign a contract with the WWE. Aries would then carry the ROH World Championship for six months, making non-stop defenses that would also be international, until Austin lost the championship to CM Punk on June 18th, 2005. But gold would not be lost from Aries’ waist for long, as he teamed up with Generation Next member Roderick Strong, and the two pursued the ROH Tag Team Championships. They were finally successful in obtaining the gold as they defeated Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke for the Tag Team Championships.
*The Start Of Something Huge*
Aries would then compete in a first time ever match that pitted Austin against Pro Wrestling Noah star and former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion KENTA. The match was highly successful but Aries suffered defeat at the hands of KENTA’s vicious finishing move, the Go 2 Sleep.
Aries and Strong finally lost their Tag Team Titles to The Kings of Wrestling, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, on September 16th, but continued to team together for the rest of the year. The team would fall apart on February 16th as Roderick attacked Austin after their tag team title match against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal (aka WWE Star Evan Bourne). Strong would go on to form a new stable, The No Remorse Corp., with Davey Richards, and feud with Aries’ new stable, The Resilience, comprised of himself, Matt Cross and Eric Stevens. The stables would feud for months, until Aries earned another shot at the ROH World Title against the monstrous Japanese ROH Champion, Takeshi Morishima, and was unsuccessful. But on May 4th, 2007, Aries was pulled from all future ROH shows as he was under contract with Total Nonstop Action wrestling.
Aries caught the eye of many people in TNA very quickly and was signed to them by 2005. Shortly after Aries signed, he formed a stable with former Generation Next members Alex Shelly and Roderick Strong. Strong and Aries however suffered suspensions from the company after deciding to stay in Long Island for a Ring of Honor show, despite TNA’s last minute requests to travel to Florida due to the potential Snowstorm. Fast Forward to October 2006 and Aries would be re-packaged in TNA as a brand new wrestler under the name Austin Starr, who quickly became associated with Kevin Nash and his group Paparazzi Productions, after Paparazzi Productions lost Johnny Devine as a member. After the Paparazzi Invitational Tournament, Starr feuded with Senshi (aka Low-Ki) for months, until Aries suffered yet another suspension from TNA. During the suspension, Aries was granted his official release form the company, but it wouldn’t take long for Aries to bounce right back from his suspension…
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