Austin Aries has tasted the gold once before. As a capper to an incredible debut year in 2004, Aries ended the historic title reign of Samoa Joe at “Final Battle 2004” and carried the belt for just shy of 6 months before losing the title to CM Punk. In that half-year, Aries defeated Colt Cabana on two occasions (once in a steel cage), he beat Joe in a rematch, Homicide, Alex Shelley, and Bryan Danielson all fell to the leader of Generation Next. He took the belt internationally and successfully defended against Kevin Steen, Super Crazy, and Ares among others. For 6 months, Aries was one of the hardest working champions in ROH history as nearly every week of his title reign he defended the belt somewhere.
But since he lost the belt at “Death Before Dishonor III”, Aries has been unable to attain the belt for a second time. He challenged Bryan Danielson on two occasions, Morishima once, Nigel McGuinness on two occasions, and has faced Jerry Lynn on HDNet as part of a Four Way with Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black. In each of these opportunities, Aries has come within a hair of become the first two-time World Champion in ROH’s history but as the saying goes…only in horseshoes and hand grenades.
As for Jerry Lynn, well he is no stranger to World title opportunities. He also challenged Nigel McGuinness on two occasions, before finally securing that elusive victory at “Supercard of Honor IV” in his third shot, and came up just short each time. Lynn was even part of the original ROH Title tournament at “Road to the Title” where he lost to AJ Styles in the first round.
But now Lynn is in the same position that Aries found himself in 2005, the position of champion. Jerry is now the hunted, the target, the man whom everyone wants a piece of in order to get that ROH World Title. As of this writing Lynn has managed to turn back six separate challenges, with two of those defenses being in Four Way matches. No one can dispute that he has indeed been a fighting champion. And regardless of how some faction of the ROH faithful may respond to him, Lynn will continue to go out and give it his all every night.
Now their paths will cross one more time in NYC at the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 13th. Even though Aries was absent from the recent events in Boston & Edison, as you will see in the next ROH Video Wire, his “stooges” of Kenny King & Rhett Titus were out in full force. But Lynn has a special challenge for Aries and his boys heading into Philadelphia.
In New York City, Aries looks to become a 2-time champion, the first in ROH history, while Jerry Lynn aims to further establish his legacy as World Champion and prove any of his doubters wrong.
