[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/austin_aries_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Greatest Man That Ever Lived]]

Daniel Healy Solwold Jr. (born April 15, 1978) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Austin Aries. He trained under Eddie Sharkey and Terry Fox and made his professional debut on November 11, 2000.

He is best known for his time in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] where he has been a TNA World, Tag Team and X-Division champion. On June 27, 2015, he lost a match to [[Wrestling/DrakeMaverick Rockstar Spud]] and was forced to leave TNA; in reality, his contract expired and he made the decision not to renew it. He would then return to ROH. In January 2016, he would officially sign with WWE, before asking and being granted his release in July 2017. On December 2017 he joined Wrestling/DefiantWrestling for 6 months and is 1x Defiant World Title champion.

Before coming to TNA, Aries was the first wrestler to be a two-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/roh/roh-h.html ROH World Heavyweight Champion]]. He has also won many other wrestling title belts such as the Mid-American Wrestling Junior Heavyweight , Steel Domain Wrestling Tag Team Titles with Ted Dixon, NWA Midwest X Division Title, and the Pro Wrestling War Heavyweight Title.
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!! "The Greatest Tropes That Ever Lived"
* TheAce: He's the longest reigning X-Division Champion in TNA history, and was the only man to win the Ring of Honor title twice until Jay Briscoe, who never lost the title in a match, regained the belt in 2014.
* AlliterativeName: Except for Dan Sexon, Austin Starr and Suicide. Also has been called "The Vascular Vegetarian", which he corrected to "The ''Most Valuable'' Vascular Vegetarian".
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Both he and Bryan Danielson use many of the same moves and were rivals in Wrestling/RingOfHonor. So Aries went on to headline TNA and Danielson WWE. For bonus points, both men are vegans.
* ArchEnemy:
** In TNA, it would actually be safer to say he doesn't have one. Unlike Wrestling/AJStyles and Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, where this was due to longevity causing them to feud with just about everybody on the roster, Aries doesn't really have one because ''nobody'' likes him and he's damn well proud of it.
** In ROH, you could argue that Wrestling/JimmyJacobs considers him this solely because of what happened with Lacey. And, of course, there's [[Wrestling/SethRollins Tyler Black]], of whom both resented ''juuust'' enough to be willing to work together. For added measure, Black was the one who ultimately ended Aries's second ROH World Championship reign.
** In WWE, [[Wrestling/AdrianNeville Neville]] in 2017.
** In RealLife, Wrestling/SamiCallihan, whom [[https://twitter.com/AustinAries/status/1093272871487455237 he accused on Twitter]] of being a glory hogger.
* BadBoss: At ''Wrestling/DefiantWrestling'''s ''Defiant #10'', as the self-proclaimed leader of the IPW faction, he bashed his teammates for their failures at the 5-on-5 elimination match between Team IPW vs. Team Defiant at ''Defiant Chain Reaction''. This led to [[TagTeam Aussie Open]] and Mark Haskins [[HeelFaceTurn turning on him]] and Damian Dunne [[HeelRealization having second thoughts about keeping on IPW with Aries]].
* BadassCape: He wears one to the ring.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: When Aries discovered Wrestling/BobbyRoode had hired Wrestling/{{Aces And Eights|Wrestlers}} to do his bidding, Aries simply decided to offer them more money than Roode had.
* BerserkButton: As someone who started wrestling in the late 90s, bringing up his height is one, as he still remembers being passed over for opportunities less talented but taller wrestlers have. [[Wrestling/JohnMorrison Johnny Impact]] bringing it up over Twitter turned their WorkedShoot exchange into something genuinely vicious that ended up with him literally walking out of the company the second he lost his championship.
* BigDamnHeroes: He ran out to stop his tag team partner Wrestling/RoderickStrong from further beating on [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]] after he had been knocked unconscious. This is the same Aries who knocked the Haze aside to keep attacking Delirious after his throat had been kicked in. So yes, EvenEvilHasStandards.
* BoringButPractical: His new finisher in 2017 is a discus elbow smash... which seems odd considering Aries' deep move set and the fact that he works primarily in the Cruiserweight Division, which not only allows but ''encourages'' more flipping around. But then, it's also an elbow, aided by the momentum of spinning and a rope rebound, ''forcefully applied to a man's jaw.'' And if that's not enough to sell the move as a legitimate knockout blow, [[SickeningCrunch just listen to it when it hits]].
* BubblePipe: He could sometimes be seen chomping on a pipe but he never seemed to light it up.
* ByTheHair: Pulled Wrestling/DaizeeHaze this way to distract Delirious away from Rhett Titus and Kenny King. After Delirious and Jerry Lynn teamed up with Tyler Black to defeat Aries, King and Titus, Aries [[EvilIsPetty would kidnap Haze out of spite.]]
* CallBack:
** Aries played a crucial role in the dismantling of both the Jimmy Jacobs\BJ Whitmer incarnation of Lacey's Angels and The Age of the Fall, which of course involved Jimmy and Lacey.
** He's doing the Wrestling/WadeBarrett role in the [[Wrestling/TheNexus Nexus-esque]] IPW invasion of ''Wrestling/DefiantWrestling'', whose GM is... Stu Bennett (Wade's real life name).
* TheCameo: Played for laughs. He continued to appear "as a fan" at Ring Of Honor events even after TNA forbid him from doing further work in the company. After TNA released him he ran into the ring and signed a contract then and there.
* CanonName: His real-life middle name as part of his character name; Austin Healy Aries.
* CasanovaWannabe
** At ''ROH The Final Showdown'' he informed a heckling fan that if he wanted her mouth open he'd have dropped his pants.
** The basis of his "A Double" gimmick in Wrestling/{{Chikara}}. Ranking guys on a grading scale, A+ still wasn't good enough for the greatest man that ever lived, AA.
** Also, Aries wants you to know he's doing [[Wrestling/SethRollins Tyler Black's]] girlfriend
* CastFromHitPoints: The Last Chancery wrenches Aries's back as well, he's just to ornery to let that stop him, or perhaps too tough where other wrestlers will eventually relent with the hold.
* ChainPain: How he won the first match of his second TNA run against Wrestling/ShannonMoore
* CoolShades: During his interviews with Ring of Honor after the show went to HD Net. Also wore them pretty often in his non-wrestling segments in TNA, a habit which he took up to eleven in WWE. Just about any time he's not in the ring wrestling, he's got them on. And given the injury that moved him to the commentary booth, he hasn't been seen without them on WWE programming for ''months.''
* CoolTeacher: As ROH world champion he was also the head trainer for Ring Of Honor's school. Also, Rhett Titus was someone he personally trained (which explains a lot).
* CrowdChant
** (when the ROH bots were against him) "Austin Asshole!" or when some of the crowd were cheering for him and others in the crowd decided to chant "[[BrokenBase Overrated!]]"
** "Fuck TNA" during his 2007 return to the ROH roster.
* CurbStompBattle: His "relaxed rules" match with Necro Butcher saw Austin Aries on the receiving end of one. Since he was feuding with Age of the Fall and had gotten other people to leave the group peacefully, Austin Aries thought he could do so with Necro Butcher too. He was wrong.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Invokes this when he praises Chris Sabin holding the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for less than a month after winning it by hitting [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Bully Ray]] in the head with a hammer.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Ended Samoa Joe's twenty one month reign as the Ring Of Honor World Champion. Wrestling/CMPunk and Tyler Black could also count for beating Aries, if being the first multiple time ROH champion qualifies him.
* DemotedToExtra: WWE found no use for him beyond voice work for the WWE '12 video game. Subverted later, as he would go on to sign a contract with NXT.
* DespairEventHorizon: Played for laughs in Wrestling/DragonGate where he claimed to lose his desire to be a wrestler after he failed to get on WWE Tough Enough. He would eventually find new purpose helping CIMA win matches as part of Blood Warriors.
* {{Determinator}}: Bryan Danielson's strategy at testing the limit was to cripple every single region of Aries's body, [[BoringButPractical leaving him completely incapable of escaping his bear hug.]] He even spent the latter stretch of the match attacking Aries's head to stop him from using that too. Aries cared more about winning than his mental health apparently because he still headbutted his way free as everything else failed.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** So, why did Aries kick in Delirious's throat and assault Daizee Haze again? That's right, Delirious bit him. Why did Delirious bite Aries? Because Aries was trying to pull off Delirious's mask. Why was Aries going after the man's mask? Because Delirious had made Austin Aries look foolish during the course of their match. Oh and Haze demanded a medical examination for her friend, which apparently offended Aries somehow.
** Unfortunately for him, Spike TV viewed a segment where Austin Aries put his crotch in ring announcer Wrestling/ChristyHemme's face for announcing him and Bobby Roode as "Bad Influence" (the team of Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels and [[Wrestling/FrankieKazarian Kazarian]]) and they were not pleased, feeling he should have stopped at forcing her to get it right. Since then he's been unable to escape the doghouse for any significant length of time. TNA seemed to have the trope in mind though, since they had previously come down harder on [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Bully Ray]] for yelling homophobic slurs at fans his first night as a BigBad, not even showing it on camera.
* DoingItWrong: March 15 ''Impact'' in Chicago, Aries attempted to put Wrestling/{{Sting}} in the Scorpion Deathlock only to get every attempt to lock it in wrong, long enough for Sting to recover and make a comeback.
* EarAche: When in brawls with the much larger Knux and Abyss, Aries tried to make up for the size differential by clapping the sides of their heads.
* EnemyMine
** With the Briscoe Brothers vs. Age of the Fall. Then with ''Jimmy Jacobs'' against Tyler Black. Aries still wouldn't join the Age of the Fall but resented Black just enough to work with Jacobs for a little while.
** With Rhett Titus and Kenny King against Wrestling/JerryLynn
** He resolved to work with Wrestling/BobbyRoode to take out TNA World Champion Wrestling/JeffHardy. Too bad they both planned on betraying each other for the title. Roode did it first.
* FaceHeelDoubleTurn: He sided with Bobby Roode and Dixie Carter against MVP on TNA Impact, but after MVP defeated them, he became a {{bad boss}}, making Roode and Aries into good guys for still opposing him. Carter remained bad boss though.
* FightingYourFriend: When he and Samoa Joe decided to stand together against their bad boss, TNA's director of wrestling operations MVP, MVP simply booked them in a match together and told them the loser would be fired. Eric Young came out to interrupt the match by attacking the referee before there could be a victor.
* FiveMovesOfDoom: During his ROH tenure he had a tendency of finishing matches with a roaring elbow, a superkick to the knee, and a standing punt to the head, followed by a brainbuster and either the 450 Splash or his Last Chancery submission. Sometimes he would omit the elbow and superkick and would use a crucifix bomb to set the combo up instead.
* FunWithAcronyms:
** When he adds Healy as the middle to to the Austin Aries name it goes from Alliterative to this— '''A'''ustin '''H'''ealy '''A'''ries.
** Why does he insist so hard on the '''M'''ost '''''V'''''aluable '''''V'''''ascular '''''V'''''egetarian thing? Because it combines AlliterativeName (see above), ItsAllAboutMe, and this trope via the shorthand of '''[=MV3=]'''.
* GimmickMatches: His best of three series with Jimmy Jacobs involved a falls count anywhere match, a dog collar match and an I Quit match. Aries is not a fan of ladder matches or TNA's Ultimate X, ironically.
* GroinAttack: At ''ROH Nowhere To Run'' he held the ropes open for Samoa Joe and then snapped them as Joe was leaving the ring. Aries went on to attack Joe's injured ribs but Joe ended up laying him out.
* AHandfulForAnEye: Retained the X Division Championship against Zema Ion by getting himself disqualified, which Aries did by spraying Ion in the eyes with hairspray.
* HeelFaceTurn: It's quite [[ReformedButNotTamed subtle]]. He's still a smug egomaniac, but he consistently backs it up, wins matches cleanly and is rarely the instigator of feuds.
** FaceHeelTurn: Seems to have switched back since losing the World Title to Jeff Hardy- again, it's fairly subtle, but he's become more overtly insulting of his opponents, vicious in the ring and has resorted to cheating to win a couple of matches.
** His face to heel turn in Ring Of Honor was about as sensible as these can get. He did not like the fact fans were cheering for [[Wrestling/SethRollins Tyler Black]] more than they were for him.
** FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Destined to forever encounter it in TNA. On one hand his character is an arrogant maverick who knows just how damn good a wrestler he is. On the other hand, fan demand is the reason he got a contract with the company in the first place.
* HopeSpot: As Wrestling/{{M|ontelVontaviousPorter}}VP laid out to him, Wrestling/BobbyLashley was bigger, stronger and faster than Austin Aries, but it turned out Aries was the ''[[InertiaIsACruelMistress quicker]]'' and more agile of the two and had everyone believing he was going to beat Lashley.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake: Ring Of Honor testing the time limit resulted in Austin Aries and Wrestling/BryanDanielson going seventy five minutes, which showed he could take more than an hour usually allotted.
* HumanShield: Used the referee as one as part of his plan to defeat Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger at ''ROH [=SoCal=] Showdown''.
* ICanStillFight: Lacey tried to throw in the towel on his behalf during his ''ROH Rising Above'' "I Quit" match with Wrestling/JimmyJacobs but Aries insisted she not do so. So in turn, Lacey made sure Tyler Black did not throw the towel in for Jacobs either, forcing one of them to scream "I Quit!" [[spoiler:It was Jacobs.]]
* ImportantHairCut: Believed shorter hair would help him get more ladies
* InvincibleHero: His X-Division title reign went on for nearly 300 days. It got to the point where Hulk Hogan made a deal with Aries so that if he dropped the X-division belt he'd get a shot at the World title. Which he then won, fulfilling the trope.
** It mainly happened because there were no more X-Division challengers left because Austin Aries had beaten everyone in the division.
** On the receiving end of this trope in Ring Of Honor against Petey Williams at ''ROH Goldrush''. Austin Aries went so far as to hit Petey with his own Canadian destroyer only for Petey to kick out at ''one'' and proceed to kick his ass.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Austin Aries always does good, always does the right thing, that is, what's right for himself.
* JackOfAllStats: He can brawl, fly, mat wrestle and bust out some hard-hitting power-moves (see below). Underlining this is the fact that he's got a power finisher (brainbuster), a submission finisher (Last Chancery/Horns of Aries), a striking finisher (Discus Fivearm) and a (albeit, rarely seen) top-rope finisher (the 450 splash).
* {{Jerkass}}: The saying goes there's only two kinds of people who wear sunglasses indoors, blind people and assholes, and Austin Aries isn't blind. Hey, just paraphrasing [[CardCarryingVillain his own words]].
* {{Leitmotif}}: "Raging of the Region" in TNA.
* LesserOfTwoEvils: The lesser vs Bully Ray toward the tail end of his record breaking TNA X Division run in 2012. This lead to the formation of Wrestling/{{Aces And Eights|Wrestlers}} after Option C came about to let Aries when TNA's World Heavyweight Championship. AT the time no one knew Bully Ray was the head of Aces And Eights but it would become obvious as more time passed. Aries was also the one to reveal Bully Ray was involved with Brooke Hogan.
* LighterAndSofter: In Wrestling/{{Chikara}} (naturally) where he began grooming himself better, wearing bright pink and developed "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" gimmick. The bright pink aspect didn't stick as well as the rest, though.
* LineOfSightName: Generation Next took their name from the Ring of Honor event they stormed.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Erick Stevens and Matt Cross were useless against The No Remorse Corps when Aries wasn't around. This is due to ROH [[RealLifeWritesThePlot stretching out the angle while trying to get TNA to let them use Aries some more]].
* MaskedLuchador: One of many men to take the role of Suicide, or rather, Aries took on the role of Suicide without approval from whoever decides what makes one a legitimate Suicide, causing the "real" Suicide at the time to change his name to Manik.
* NeverMyFault: Shown at ''[[Wrestling/DefiantWrestling Defiant #10]]''. [[spoiler:This was [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal the catalyst]] for [[HeelFaceTurn half of Team IPW turning to Defiant]]]].
--> '''Aries:''' ''I think it's safe to say Chain Reaction didn't go quite as we have hoped. And as the leader of the team, I take full responsibility. It's all my fault. As the leader it's my fault, I must take full responsibility, because, you see, you're as strong as your weakest link. And apparently, [[YouHaveFailedMe I've picked some]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis pretty. Weak. Links.]] ''(Walks towards [[ThoseTwoGuys Aussie Open]])'' Aren't you guys supposed to be some tag team specialists? What happened? You ''(Kyle Fletcher)'' were the first one out. Eliminated. And then you ''([[DirtyCop "No Fun" Damian Dunne]])'' I gave you the opportunity to step up against Rampage, man. What happened? What happened to you? You tried? Oh, you tried. That was your best? That was your best. Well, that was pathetic. If that was your best, that was pathetic.''
--> (Mark Haskins pulls the mic from Aries)
--> '''Mark Haskins:''' ''You wanna know what's pathetic? [[HeelRealization Pathetic is the alleged leader of this team tapping out like a little bitch]].''
--> (Pop, then chants of "You tapped out!")
--> '''Aries:''' ''Yes, yes, I tapped out. And let's talk about what happened right before I tapped out, Mr. Mark Haskins. [[EpicFail You kicked me in the face.]] You know why? Because, apparently your tag mix is not very good, or your timing's off, or you have no rhythm, or maybe all of the above? [[BullyingADragon I may gonna ask your woman about that]].''
--> (a big OOOOOOHHHHHH! from the crowd)
--> '''Aries:''' ''Your response for talk the champ. You kicked me in the face. And then yeah, I tapped out. Because, let's be honest. At least the match didn't really make much of a difference, right? Because my championship wasn't on the line, and as long as I have this, guys, as long as I have this, we sustain some support around here. So luckily for you, I'm still the champion, [[WeCanRuleTogether and you also have a chance to redeem yourselves]].''
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: His and Roderick Strong's excessive beating of Alex Shelley lead to Alex Shelley joining the Embassy and becoming an even bigger pain.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: His mistreatment of Team IPW allowed Stu Bennett to hire them as part of the ''Defiant'' roster in the fallout to ''Defiant Chain Reaction''. And while Aries eventually lost the World Title to Rampage at ''Defiant No Regrets'', Mark Haskins (along with Wrestling/JimmyHavoc) and Aussie Open (the first ones to turn on Aries) got to play HotPotato with the Tag Team title ever since the latter team obtained it, [[SpotlightStealingSquad putting every other team in the background]].
* {{Ninja}}: Or rather Aries stole the identity of a Pro Wrestling RESPECT ninja in order to upstage and defeat a bunch of RESPECT trainees who were put in a battle royal.
* NoSell: A notorious example at ''Bound For Glory''. While Johnny Impact defeated him for the 1-2-3 count, Aries immediately got up afterwards and walked off like nothing happened to him instead of staying down and allowing Johnny to have his moment.
* NotBad: When he lost the title to Jeff Hardy, he rationalized it as Jeff briefly finding a way to ascend to his level but that Jeff ''obviously'' could not keep it up.
* OlderHeroVersusYoungerVillain: His feud against [[Wrestling/AdrianNeville Neville]] and TJP
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Said that Alex Shelley and [[Wrestling/LondonAndKendrick Brian Kendrick]] only cared about entertaining fans and having five star matches, while Aries boasted of having had five star matches for years and only caring about a five star bank account.
* PartsUnknown: (as Austin [=Starr=]) "TV Land"
* PassThePopcorn: Austin Aries offered to anyway while watching the number one contender for his ROH World Championship, Tyler Black, wrestle Roderick Strong. He eventually [[ProducePelting threw the remaining popcorn at Black]] when Black started win, causing Tyler to respond with a super kick.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: At 5,9 he's short by wrestling standards. However, he can lift 300 pound heavyweights like Samoa Joe, Bully Ray, and "[[RedBaron The]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Destroyer]]" [[Wrestling/BobbyLashley Lashley]] over his head and brainbuster them. I'd say he qualifies.
* {{Paparazzi}}: Austin Starr with Alex Shelley, Kevin Nash and Johnny Devine.
* PerkyFemaleMinion: Jade Chung sided with Generation Next after leaving the Embassy. Mainly due to Roderick Strong but she helped Aries too.
* PowerStable
** Under Alex Shelley in Generation Next with Roderick Strong, Jack Evans and later, [[Wrestling/EvanBourne Matt Sydal]] when he broke into Ring Of Honor
** DP(Dave Prazak) Associates in Full Impact Pro with [=LaDuke=] Jakes, Wrestling/SamoaJoe, Delirious, Cyber Kong, Jimmy Rave, Bryan Danielson and Adam Pearce.
** The Standard with Adam Pearce, Joey Kaos and Peter Avalon in [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA Pro and NWA Hollywood]]
** Blood Warriors in Dragon Gate
** Team Aries in ''Wrestling/DefiantWrestling'', alongside Chris Ridgeway and Mark Haskins. [[spoiler:They are the leaders of the IPW invasion]].
* PowerTrio: Was part of two in Ring of Honor:
** Resilience with Matt Cross and Erick Stevens.
** Pantheon of Gods with Kenny King and Rhett Titus of the All Night Express.
** Team Aries in ''Defiant Wrestling''.
* PrecisionFStrike: When Jeff Hardy was going to go on to beat him again in a ladder match Austin Aries tried to jury rig the whole thing so no one could reach the belt, and shouted an explicative about Jeff never getting that belt, just for Jeff to get a bigger ladder.
* PunnyName: Dirty Heels, his tag team with Bobby Roode. The name was first tested through shirts they both wore in a backstage segment once when they first teamed in TNA, then used officially when they tagged up in House of Hardcore, then stuck for good when they teamed again in TNA. DontExplainTheJoke, [[{{Heel}} please]].
* PutOnABus: During his stint as "The Greatest Manager That Ever Lived", he was removed from the ROH roster until the company could get its finances together. Aries would not be coming back, as he ended up on the TNA roster.
* RageQuit: Out of DP Associates due to lack of success.
* RealMenWearPink: A pink fur vest, starting in Chikara.
* RedBaron: Dan "Casual" Sexton in Steel Domain Wrestling. Later "A Double", "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived".
* RedemptionRejection: Dismisses Stu Bennett's offer for a contract at ''Defiant #10''. [[spoiler:This is not the case with (almost) the rest of Team IPW, who part ways with Aries in a very bad way, joining Defiant in the process]].
* TheRival
** The Second City Saints to Generation Next after Generation Next targeted Wrestling/RickySteamboat. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even CM Punk has standards.]]
** The Kings Of Wrestling to Generation Next. After Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli and Wrestling/ChrisHero managed to beat Aries and Roderick Strong for the ROH tag team championships, fellow Generation Next member Matt Sydal eventually managed to win the belts back with Christopher Daniels.
** Whoever Wrestling/PrinceNana was managing.
** Roderick Strong turned on him after he and Aries failed to defeat Daniels and Sydal for the Tag Team titles. Since this directly lead to the "No Remorse Corp" the rest of them too when Aries formed "The Resilience".
** Bobby Roode in TNA. The two constantly alternated between working together and working against each other. Then they won the TNA Tag Team Championships, which made Aries a triple crown champion in TNA.
* SadlyMythtaken: He called himself "The God of War" in TNA. One letter away, ''Aries'' means ''ram''. Austin does know better too.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After losing the Impact World Championship to [[Wrestling/JohnMorrison Johnny Impact]] at Bound For Glory, rather than lie there and sell that he'd been through a hard-hitting match and just taken Johnny's finisher, Aries proceeded to [[NoSell get up like nothing happened]], flip off the crowd and the commentators, and walk away.
* ShapedLikeItself: The ROH trio of Aries, Kenny King and Rhett Titus, The Pantheon of Gods.
* SharpDressedMan: In Wrestling/ProWrestlingGuerilla, during his second ROH World title reign.
* SignatureMove: Discus Elbow, Figure Eight Leglock, Fish hook of doom, Heat Seeking Missile (Suicide dive), Macho Neck Snap (rope hung neck snap), Pendulum Elbow (pendulum back breaker to elbow drop), Power Drive elbow (twisting elbow drop), Slow Motion Special (jumping knee drop).
* SmallNameBigEgo: While not necessarily a ''small'' name, being a multi-time world champion and all, calling yourself "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" means you have an ego that far outweighs any name you could possibly have.
* SmugSnake: Austin Aries is a good wrestler, perhaps a contender for the best in the world. However, even if he was indeed the best in the world he would ''still'' qualify for the fact he repeatedly has to have it beaten into him that there maybe just maybe be someone else who is around his level.
* SunglassesAtNight: He's always seen with a pair of sunglasses.
* TenMinuteRetirement: A five day retirement in 2011 when he left EVOLVE and Dragon Gate to pursue a career outside of wrestling, only to resurface in TNA. He revealed this was because he was temporarily demoralized after watching Film/TheWrestler.
* ThirdMovieGoesToAsia: He and Roderick Strong took the ROH Tag Team Championships to Dragon Gate in Japan to make them the ROH ''World'' Tag Team Championships and hopefully upgrade them to main events status, which they did.
* ThreeMonthRule: TNA jumped the gun when it announced, two months after Austin Aries's (real) suspension for choosing an ROH show over a TNA one that it was going to introduce a "new" wrestler. Who turned out to be Austin ''Starr''. He got suspended again for complaining about having to do vignettes on his day off and then went back to ROH, only to return to TNA as Aries again.
* TournamentArc
** Defeated Adrian Serrano and Wrestling/ShawnDaivari in the finals of the MAW Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament
** Defeated Steve Douglas for the Rings Of Europe Wachauer Wrestling Trophy
** He won TNA's Gold Rush Tournament in 2014, though it was more like a Battle Royal that one had to win a qualifying match for than a traditional tournament.
* TrojanHorse: The real reason he signed with ''Wrestling/DefiantWrestling''. [[spoiler:He obtained the World Title and it turns out that he never cared for the company as he signed a contract with IPW beforehand, so Team IPW sent him to obtain the World Title and destroy Defiant from the inside]].
--> (at ''Defiant #7'') ''[[spoiler:"We ''defied'' Defiant"]]''
* [[WildCard Tweener]]: Jimmy Jacobs began to take interest in Austin Aries and his potential for the Age of the Fall after Aries stopped following the {{code of honour}}, following a loss to Wrestling/NigelMcGuinness. Aries did sympathize with Age of the Fall too, or rather he agreed with their message, just not with them personally.
* UseYourHead: Besides his usual trope fair, on the 10/15/2014 edition of Impact Aries started furious headbutting Bobby Roode in the back after the referee demanded a clean break follow Roode reaching the ropes during a Last Chancery.
* VersusTitle
** ''EVOLVE 6: Aries vs. Taylor'', ''EVOLVE 7: Aries vs. [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Moxley]]''.
** ''RPW: [[Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada Okada]] vs Aries''
* VillainOfAnotherStory: Took on a harmless referee role in Wrestling/{{Wrestlicious}}, but the show made no attempt to disguise Aries from any who might have recognized him.
* WorthyOpponent
** Alex Shelley, whose potential match of the year showing against Aries at Against All Odds 2012 saw him come closer than anyone to ending Aries' X-Division title reign. This one is OlderThanTheyThink. Aries and Shelley were former partners in Ring of Honor as Generation Next, and later became bitter rivals after Gen Next turned face and removed Shelley as leader. Shelley then joined The Embassy, who were Gen Next's chief rivals.
** Austin Aries said as much of Wrestling/AJStyles in TNA. AJ was a loose affiliate of Generation Next while they were in Ring Of Honor.
* WouldHitAGirl: Austin Aries's reputation precedes himself and it also applied to Starr, as he performed a drop rope guillotine on Wrestling/{{Lita}} in the United Wrestling Federation.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Tried this with Rich Swann, who felt he was being ignored by the stables of Dragon Gate for being a foreigner but it did not work because Swann did not want to be Aries's underling.
* WrestlingPsychology: Bryan Danielson uses Austin Aries to demonstrate the importance of basics and fundamentals, why knowing how to apply holds correctly and when to do things is more important than knowing cool looking moves.
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