10 Best Wrestlers Who Never Held The ROH World Title

10. KENTA

Bryan Danielson Kenta Hideo Itami
ROH

The man known to NXT fans as Hideo Itami came excruciatingly close to winning the ROH World Championship on not one but two occasions. KENTA made his first appearance for Ring of Honor at Final Battle 2005 where he defended the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against inaugural ROH World Champion Low Ki and the Japanese star went on to compete in ROH frequently over the next four years.

KENTA defeated Danielson twice whilst the future Daniel Bryan was ROH World Champion, but it was Danielson who came out on top when the title was put on the line at Glory By Honor V: Night 2. Danielson was injured going into this match and his immediate future wasn't clear, yet KENTA still wasn't able to wrestle the title from the grasp of the American Dragon.

KENTA fell short in eerily similar circumstances a few years later against another injured champion, this time in the shape of Nigel McGuinness. McGuinness tore his bicep the night before yet he still managed to put on the match of the night with KENTA before dropping the title to Jerry Lynn soon after.

Whilst KENTA was never a true full-timer with Ring of Honor he was still a more than credible presence in the company and his international standing meant that a title win wasn't out of the question. The future Hideo Itami would have been a popular choice as ROH World Champion.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.