List of TNA World Champions explained

The TNA World Championship[1] is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). From June 2002 to May 2007, TNA used the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as their primary championship as part of an agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). On May 13, 2007, the NWA abruptly ended the arrangement and retrieved control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[2] On the same night, TNA were set to host their annual Sacrifice pay-per-view event, in which the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was to be defended by then-champion Christian Cage against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match. Angle won the match and on the following episode of TNA's television program Impact! on May 17, was declared the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. He was stripped of the championship later in the program, with Management Director Jim Cornette citing a problematic finish to the title match. The ownership of the championship was decided on June 17, 2007, at TNA's Slammiversary event in a King of the Mountain match involving Angle and Cage along with A.J. Styles, Chris Harris and Samoa Joe, which Angle won.

Despite the championship being primarily contested for by a male roster, it was once won by a female competitor (Tessa Blanchard). Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. Reigns that began on Impact Wrestling usually air on tape delay and as such are listed with the day the tapings occurred, rather than the air date. Angle holds the record for most reigns, with six. At 335 days, Josh Alexander's second reign is the longest in the title's history. Alexander's first reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title's history at only a few minutes. Overall, there have been 60 reigns shared among 35 wrestlers, with seven vacancies.

Title history

Names

NameYears
TNA World Heavyweight ChampionshipMay 13, 2007 – March 1, 2017
Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight ChampionshipMarch 2, 2017 – July 2, 2017
Unified GFW World Heavyweight ChampionshipJuly 2, 2017 – August 17, 2017
GFW Global ChampionshipAugust 17, 2017 – September 18, 2017
Impact Global ChampionshipSeptember 18, 2017 – January 10, 2018
Impact World ChampionshipJanuary 10, 2018 – March 13, 2021
Impact Unified World ChampionshipMarch 13, 2021 – March 16, 2021
Impact World ChampionshipMarch 16, 2021 – January 13, 2024
TNA World ChampionshipJanuary 13, 2024 –

Reigns

For a list of world champions in TNA between 2002 and 2007, see the list of NWA World Heavyweight Champions.

As of, .

Combined reigns

As of, .

Indicates the current champion
RankWrestlerNo. of
reigns
Combined days
16 608
24 403
33 373
42 371
52 367
62 335
74 326
83 249
92 220
101 218
112 196
1
131 183
141 182
151 180
161 165
171 146
182 140
191 128
202 125
211 113
221 110
232 104
241 89
251 79
261 71
272 69
282 64
291 63
301 54
311 43
321 +
331 28
341 8
351 2

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.tnawrestling.com/wrestlers Champions - TNA Wrestling.com
  2. Web site: NWA/Trobich strips TNA/Cage/Team 3D of NWA branded Championships. 2011-02-04. National Wrestling Alliance.