Austin Aries was born Dan Solwold in 1978 in Wisconsin. He started his career in the midwest training under Eddie Sharkey. He made his debut in November 2000 and watched his career jump when he advanced to the finals of the ECWA Super 8 Tournament where he was beat by Christopher Daniels. He joined Ring of Honor in 2004 losing a four corners match to Nigel McGuiness. He joined the stable Generation Next with Alex Shelley, Jack Evans, and Roderick Strong to make their mark in ROH. In late 2004, Aries defeated Samoa Joe, the longest reigning champion in ROH history, for the ROH Heavyweight Championship. After six months, Aries lose the title to CM Punk.

Aries then teamed with Roderick Strong to win thr ROH Tag Team Championship and in the process, they disbanded Generation Next. After a 10 months reign, they lost the titles to Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero. A potential Generation Next was thought to happen unrtil Strong attacked Aries after a match tag match for the titles. After it was announced that ROH would start doing Pay Per Views, Aries, who was under contract with TNA, was pulled from all ROH shows.

Aries started working for TNA in August 2005 when TNA fans voted Aries to face Christopher Daniels for the X Division title. Aries lost the match but was signed by TNA in September and formed a stable with Alex Shelley and Roderick Strong, which many called the second coming of Generation Next. In early 2006, Aries and Strong was suspended for two months for showing up late to a TNA PPV after doing a ROH show. Aries was brought back with the gimmick of Austin Starr at Bound for Glory 06 and won the X Division Gauntlet Battle Royal. He partcipated in the Paparazzi Championship Series losing to Shelley in the finals and feuded with Sneshi before asking for his release from TNA.

Aries returned to ROH a month after leaving TNA and his match was a four way match for the FIP World Heavyweight Championship and joined back up with his old stable The Resilience. After feuding with Roderick Strong and his stable No Remorse Corps, he disbanded The Resilience so he could focus on regaining the ROH Heavyweight title. After a losing against the current champion Nigel McGuiness, Aries also was selected to replace Mark Briscoe by Jay Briscoe due to an injury to Mark. They won the match but they vacated the titles after on defense and Aries teamed with Bryan Danielson in a tournament for the Tag Titles. They were eliminated in the second round.

Throughout the end of 2008, Aries would feud with Jimmy Jacobs and The Age of the Fall resulted a steel cage match, a dog collar match, and a I Quit match. In early 2009, his persona changed from a darker character to a short hair, flamboyant ladies man and started calling himself A Double. In June 2009, he won a three way match against Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black to win the ROH World Heavyweight Championship for the second time becoming the first and only person to have held the title on more than one occasion. He defended the title against Tyler Black and match ended in 60 minute time limit draw and Aries retained.