Winning a world championship is the ultimate goal for any superstar that steps inside the ring for any promotion, and it's no different for the wrestlers in the WWE locker room. Over the years, many superstars have tried to get their hands on the coveted WWE Championship, and only a few managed to achieve the feat, while the others came very close.The list includes both established and new wrestlers, as Vince McMahon was quite selective when it came to the WWE Championship and is also known for changing his mind even at the last possible moment. With that said, let's take a look at ten wrestlers who were rumored to win the WWE Championship but didn't.
10 Mabel
During Mabel's first run with WWE between 1993 and 1996, he got the opportunity to become one of the top heels of the company. He managed to impress the backstage officials, which led to him becoming the 1995 King of the Ring tournament, which put him in contention for the WWE Championship.
Despite the fans being vocal about their displeasure with Mabel in the main event position, Vince McMahon continued to push him as a top heel. At one point he was a favorite to win the WWE Championship from Diesel at the 1995 SummerSlam PPV, but plans changed at the last moment as Diesel retained the title. The reason behind Mabel's loss is said to be either Vince McMahon losing interest in him because of his lack of mobility inside the ring or Diesel and his Kliq friends pulling some strings to prevent Mabel from winning the title.
9 William Regal
During his time as an on-screen managerial figure around 2007 and 2008, William Regal suddenly rose to the occasion as a top heel by winning the 2008 King of the Ring tournament.
Regal had this power-hungry character, which earned him significant spots on television, and it even gave rise to speculations that he's well on his way to winning his first WWE Championship under his new villainous gimmick. But Regal ruined things for himself by failing WWE's wellness policy and got a 60-day suspension, which resulted in him losing his push for good.
8 Jack Swagger
Jack Swagger rose to prominence in his first WWE run when he won the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 24. Since the previous cash-ins were all successful and that he was part of the Raw roster, there were speculations that Swagger would go on to cash in the contract on John Cena to win the WWE Championship.
Swagger did make the attempt to cash in on Cena, but backed out at the last moment. He then successfully cashed it in on Chris Jericho to win the World Heavyweight Championship. However, Swagger recently revealed that he was supposed to cash in on Cena to win the WWE title, but Cena reportedly refuse to do the job for Swagger as he thought the latter was not ready for such a huge victory.
7 Lex Luger
It's an uphill task for a wrestler to impress the backstage officials and prove his worth to them in order to get a shot at the main event or world title pictures. Lex Luger had such an opportunity after co-winning the 1994 Royal Rumble alongside Bret Hart.
Vince McMahon had big plans for the Total Package and intended to make him the WWE Champion, but abruptly dropped the idea and had Luger lose to Yokozuna at WrestleMania 10. The reason behind the sudden change of plans was said to be because Luger bragging about the plans for him to win the WWE title to a writer.
6 Vladimir Kozlov
Vladimir Kozlov broke out into the main event picture in WWE straight away after making his debut and started a rivalry with Jeff Hardy and Triple H over the WWE Championship.
He defeated the Undertaker by disqualification to earn a WWE title match against Triple H and Jeff Hardy at the 2008 Survivor Series PPV. The Game had already held the WWE title for a long time, and there were rumors that Kozlov would be the person to dethrone Triple H to become the new champion. However, Edge replacing Hardy in the match caused a clear change of plans, and the Rated R Superstar walked out of Survivor Series 2008 as the new WWE Champion.
5 Shane McMahon
Shane McMahon was having a good run as the babyface commissioner of SmackDown before he chose to shake things up by taking up the heel Best in the World character.
The turn did work for him as he drew legitimate nuclear heat from the crowd and abused his power to get his way like a true McMahon offspring.
While the fans were speculating about the reason behind Shane McMahon getting such a push, WrestleVotes reported that they've heard from their sources that there were talks about having McMahon beat Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. However, that never came to fruition, and Kingston lost the title to Brock Lesnar instead.
4 Mustafa Ali
Mustafa Ali started to get more opportunities and was inching closer to getting into the main event picture back in 2018. He was originally planned to compete in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the titular PPV in 2019, but a last-minute injury he sustained took him out of the match.
There were reports stating that Mustafa Ali was the original superstar WWE planned to get the WWE championship match against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35, but the injury overturned all plans and the opportunity went to Kofi Kingston instead. He was also rumored to win the Money in the Bank ladder match in 2019 and get back to the WWE title picture, but Brock Lesnar's involvement in the match caused Ali to lose his intended push.
3 Wade Barrett
After winning the first season of NXT, Wade Barrett shocked the fans by recruiting his fellow NXT rookies to form the Nexus faction. He wreaked havoc alongside his group on the WWE main roster and quickly became the top heel of the company and feuded against major stars like John Cena and Randy Orton.
After making such an impactful debut, the fans expected big things for Barrett. Since he was supposed to get a WWE Championship match at an event of his choosing, there were speculations that the Nexus would rise to even more power with Barrett becoming the new WWE Champion, but sadly that didn't happen as the group lost a high-profile feud against John Cena, which derailed their whole momentum.
2 Shinsuke Nakamura
Shinsuke Nakamura was already a global sensation even before he signed with WWE. He had a successful outing during his run in NXT, and the fans expected the same from him when WWE called him up to the main roster.
Things looked in Nakamura's favor as he went on to win the 2018 Royal Rumble match and set his sights on AJ Styles and the WWE Championship. The fans viewed the bout between Styles and Nakamura as a dream match and were more pumped up after hearing the rumors of Nakamura winning the title at WrestleMania 34. But WWE changed the plans and had Styles retain the title at WrestleMania and had Nakamura turn heel, which started a steep downfall in momentum for the Japanese star.
1 Mr. Kennedy
Mr. Kennedy rose to the main event status after winning the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23. He was one of the best heels in the company at the time and the fans were also excited to see a young superstar rise up to the occasion.
He was rumored to cash in the contract to win the WWE Championship like his two predecessors, but a misdiagnosed injury caused Kennedy to lose the contract. WWE did have other plans for Kennedy, but an altercation with Randy Orton cost him his push and his WWE career.