Austin Aries

Daniel Healy Solwold Jr. (born April 15, 1978), better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler.

He is best known for his time with Impact Wrestling, where he is a three-time Impact World Champion and a six-time Impact X Division Champion, and Ring of Honor (ROH) where he was the first multi-time ROH World Champion.

He is also known for his time with WWE, where he competed in the cruiserweight division as well as doing color commentary.

Between TNA/Impact and ROH, Aries has held 14 total championships and has also held numerous international and U.S. independent championships.

Solwold began training under Eddie Sharkey and Terry Fox in 2000 and debuted on November 11, 2000, facing "Sheriff" Johnny Emerald.

Aries began to work with ROH in 2004, joining the Generation Next faction.

He won the ROH World Tag Team Championship with his teammate Roderick Strong, and at Final Battle 2004, ROH's biggest event, defeated Samoa Joe to win the ROH World Championship, ending the latter's 645-day reign.

He wrestled in the midwest for several years before his east coast wrestling career was jumpstarted after he progressed to the finals of the 2004 ECWA Super 8 Tournament, where he was defeated by Christopher Daniels.

From there, he joined Ring of Honor.

Aries made his ROH main show debut at ROH: Reborn Stage 2 on April 24, 2004.

Aries was unsuccessful, however, losing a four corner survival match also involving Jimmy Rave, Rocky Romero, and the winner, Nigel McGuinness.

Aries was scheduled to return at the show of May 22, Generation Next, to compete in a one night series which would showcase young, upcoming ROH talent.

Alex Shelley, however, hand-picked Aries, along with Roderick Strong and Jack Evans, as members of a new stable (also meant to promote young, upcoming ROH talent) who, instead of earning their spots, would simply take them.

The group took the name Generation Next as their own.

Aries captured the ROH World Championship at Final Battle 2004 on December 26, 2004, by defeating the longest reigning ROH World Champion Samoa Joe.

On June 16, 2005, Ring of Honor named Aries the new head trainer at the ROH wrestling school, replacing the former head trainer, CM Punk, who had agreed to a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

After a six-month string of non-stop defenses, many of which were international, Aries lost the championship to CM Punk on June 18, 2005.

On December 17 at Final Battle 2005, Aries teamed with Strong to defeat Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke for the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

In July 2005, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) held an Internet poll to select an opponent for the TNA X Division Champion Christopher Daniels at their August 14 pay-per-view, Sacrifice.

Billed as an "Internet dream match", the poll offered voters the choice of Aries, Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal and Matt Sydal, none of whom were contracted to TNA or had even appeared with the company on a regular basis in the past.

Aries won the poll by a landslide, and thus faced Daniels in a non-title match at Sacrifice, which he lost.

The two then disbanded Generation Next on June 3, 2006.

In a first time ever match, Aries took on Pro Wrestling Noah wrestler KENTA on June 24, but was defeated following KENTA's Go 2 Sleep.

On September 16, he and his partner Strong lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli).

Aries and Strong continued to team together for the rest of the year.

At Battle of the Icons on January 27, 2007, Aries and Strong teamed up with Jack Evans to defeat Davey Richards, Delirious and SHINGO.

This apparent Generation Next reunion was short lived when, at the following show on February 16, Strong attacked Aries after their tag team title match against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal.

Strong then formed the "No Remorse Corps" with Davey Richards.

Jack Evans ran down and pulled Strong off Aries, but refused to side with either of them.

The following night, Aries called out Strong twice, but was unable to get his hands on him.

When Evans refused to side with him, Aries said he was going to form a new faction with members of the next generation of wrestling.

With that, he formed "The Resilience" with Erick Stevens and Matt Cross.

On April 27, Aries unsuccessfully challenged Takeshi Morishima for the Ring of Honor World Championship.

On May 4, 2007, Ring of Honor announced on their website that they had signed a pay-per-view deal with G-Funk Sports and Entertainment.

Following the announcement, TNA pulled Aries and Homicide, both under contracts with TNA, from all Ring of Honor shows.

He would regain the title in 2009, becoming the first multi-time champion.

After moving on to Impact Wrestling, then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Aries won the X Division Championship six times.

His first reign is the longest of the title's history at 301 days and created the "Option C" clause, trading the title for a TNA World Heavyweight title opportunity at Destination X, winning the title.

He also won the TNA World Tag Team Championship and the Impact Grand Championship, becoming a Grand Slam Champion in Impact Wrestling.

After a short hiatus from the wrestling industry from 2019 to 2021, he is currently making appearances for the National Wrestling Alliance and other independent wrestling companies.