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.
| Name | Years |
|---|---|
| TNA World Heavyweight Championship | May 13, 2007 – March 1, 2017 |
| Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship | March 2, 2017 – July 2, 2017 |
| Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship | July 2, 2017 – August 17, 2017 |
| GFW Global Championship | August 17, 2017 – September 18, 2017 |
| Impact Global Championship | September 18, 2017 – January 10, 2018 |
| Impact World Championship | January 10, 2018 – March 13, 2021 |
| Impact Unified World Championship | March 13, 2021 – March 16, 2021 |
| Impact World Championship | March 16, 2021 – January 13, 2024 |
| TNA World Championship | January 13, 2024 – |
For a list of world champions in TNA between 2002 and 2007, see the list of NWA World Heavyweight Champions.
As of, .
As of, .
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 608 | ||
| 2 | 4 | 403 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 373 | ||
| 4 | 2 | 371 | ||
| 5 | 2 | 367 | ||
| 6 | 2 | 335 | ||
| 7 | 4 | 326 | ||
| 8 | 3 | 249 | ||
| 9 | 2 | 220 | ||
| 10 | 1 | 218 | ||
| 11 | 2 | 196 | ||
| 1 | ||||
| 13 | 1 | 183 | ||
| 14 | 1 | 182 | ||
| 15 | 1 | 180 | ||
| 16 | 1 | 165 | ||
| 17 | 1 | 146 | ||
| 18 | 2 | 140 | ||
| 19 | 1 | 128 | ||
| 20 | 2 | 125 | ||
| 21 | 1 | 113 | ||
| 22 | 1 | 110 | ||
| 23 | 2 | 104 | ||
| 24 | 1 | 89 | ||
| 25 | 1 | 79 | ||
| 26 | 1 | 71 | ||
| 27 | 2 | 69 | ||
| 28 | 2 | 64 | ||
| 29 | 1 | 63 | ||
| 30 | 1 | 54 | ||
| 31 | 1 | 43 | ||
| 32 | † | 1 | + | |
| 33 | 1 | 28 | ||
| 34 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 35 | 1 | 2 |