TNA World Championship
TNA World Championship | |||||||||||||
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Details | |||||||||||||
Promotion | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) | ||||||||||||
Date established | May 13, 2007[1] | ||||||||||||
Current champion(s) | Moose | ||||||||||||
Date won | January 13, 2024 | ||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||
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The TNA World Championship[3] is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It is the promotion's principal championship. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a predetermined match. The current champion is Moose, who is in his second reign.
Before the championship was created, TNA controlled the
When TNA changed its name and became Impact Wrestling in March 2017, the title was renamed soon after to reflect the change. After Impact Wrestling rebranded to
History
TNA Wrestling was formed as NWA: Total Nonstop Action in May 2002.
Creation
The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until the morning of May 13, 2007.
That night, the onscreen graphic used to refer to the champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA champions.[8] Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the World Heavyweight Championship.[9]
TNA held a set of tapings for the next two episodes of Impact! on May 14, with the episodes set to air on
The five participants for the King of the Mountain match were determined in a series of standard wrestling matches that took place on Impact! leading up to the event, with Angle defeating
Re-branding
In early 2017 After TNA rebranded as Impact Wrestling, the name of its flagship show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship changed its name to the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to reflect the name changes of the company.
At
Since the February 1, 2018 episode of Impact!, the title has been known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship, with the latter title being officially retired.
At
Return to TNA name
With the announcement that Impact Wrestling was rebranding back to TNA Wrestling, the world title was rebranded to the TNA World Championship.
Championship Tournaments
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament (2010)
On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact!, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered a storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings. The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10.[24][25]
Quarterfinals (TV - TNA Impact!) | Semifinals (PPV - No Surrender) | Finals (PPV - Bound for Glory) | ||||||||||||
Jeff Hardy | Pin | |||||||||||||
Rob Terry | 03:17[citation needed] | |||||||||||||
Jeff Hardy* | NC | |||||||||||||
Kurt Angle* | 30:00[26] | |||||||||||||
Kurt Angle | Sub | |||||||||||||
Douglas Williams | 04:52[citation needed] | |||||||||||||
Jeff Hardy Kurt Angle | Pin | |||||||||||||
Mr. Anderson | 18:37[27] | |||||||||||||
Jay Lethal | Pin | |||||||||||||
Mr. Anderson | 04:11[citation needed] | |||||||||||||
Mr. Anderson | Pin | |||||||||||||
D'Angelo Dinero | 16:58[26] | |||||||||||||
D'Angelo Dinero | Pin | |||||||||||||
Matt Morgan | 04:46[citation needed] |
* Angle and Hardy wrestled another draw on the September 16 edition of Impact!, which led to Eric Bischoff making the final match at Bound for Glory a three–way.[28]
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament (2013)
On October 29, 2013, TNA President
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
Impact Wrestling | Jeff Hardy | Pin1 | ||||||||||||
11/7 | Chris Sabin | 10:39 | ||||||||||||
Impact Wrestling | Jeff Hardy | Win5 | ||||||||||||
12/5 | Bobby Roode | 13:51 | ||||||||||||
Turning Point | Bobby Roode | TKO*2 | ||||||||||||
11/23 | James Storm | 12:36 | ||||||||||||
Final Resolution | Jeff Hardy | 17:42 | ||||||||||||
12/19 | Magnus | Win7 | ||||||||||||
Impact Wrestling | Kurt Angle | Sub3 | ||||||||||||
11/14 | Austin Aries | 18:46 | ||||||||||||
Impact Wrestling | Kurt Angle | KO6 | ||||||||||||
12/5 | Magnus | 15:24 | ||||||||||||
Turning Point | Samoa Joe | Pin4 | ||||||||||||
11/23 | Magnus | 11:22 |
Championship belt designs
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Kurt Angle with the original TNA World Heavyweight Championship title belt design with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship beside it
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Jeff Hardy with his custom design, dubbed the "Immortal Championship", which would later officially become the second title belt design after being used by Mr. Anderson and Sting
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Ethan Carter III with the third title belt design (2011–2017)
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Eli Drake with the fourth title belt design; the "Impact Wrestling" plate was added to the title belt to cover the Global Force Wrestling logo after the company's brief use of that name
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Johnny Impact with the fifth design of the belt, introduced in 2018, in its original blue-painted version
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The fifth design of the belt in the red-painted version introduced in 2020
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The sixth design of the belt, introduced in January 2024 when the company rebranded back to TNA Wrestling
To date, the championship has had seven belt designs, with the original title belt (which was unveiled in May 2007) having on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended. The word "World" was placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon was wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars were engraved on the ribbon when it passed over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passed over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" were printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate there was TNA logo. Four smaller side plates had an imprint of a globe centered with TNA's logo at the top and bottom of each. At each end of the title belt there was a small plate that covered the championship belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each.[1]
At the November 8, 2010 tapings of the November 11 episode of Impact!, TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal Championship", as part of the Immortal storyline.[29] The new design consisted of a purple strap with a silver center plate depicting a masked head (designed to resemble Hardy's face with face paint), the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There were four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the title belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates.[30]
The Immortal title belt was replaced by the third design of the championship belt at the March 14, 2011 tapings of the March 17 episode of Impact!, introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting.[31][32] The design featured seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The center plate had faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges, similar to that of the Big Gold Belt. Over the center plate was a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it the words "Heavyweight Champion" engraved in silver. On each side of the center plate was a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two featured separate corresponding halves of a globe, on either side of the TNA logo side plate.[33] This belt—modified with a white strap—returned in April 2020 after Moose declared himself as "TNA World Heavyweight Champion" following defeating several past TNA wrestlers, and with then-reigning Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard being absent due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Moose's title would remain unrecognized until February 2021, when it became officially sanctioned and recognized by Impact executive vice president Scott D'Amore.
Following Slammiversary XV, both the TNA and original GFW Global Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the unification of both titles. At Destination X 2017, the GFW Global Championship belt, with an updated color scheme and Impact logos on the side plates, became the sole belt used. Following the departure of Jeff Jarrett from the promotion, the company reverted to the Impact Wrestling name and the title belt was updated with an Impact name plate to reflect the change. A new title design was announced and introduced at Impact Wrestling's Redemption on April 22, 2018. The gold center plate has the Impact logo with "World Champion" inscribed below the logo. An owl sits above the Impact logo, representing Impact's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment. On each side of the center plate is a group of four smaller gold plates, with the inner side plates featuring separate corresponding halves of a globe with "World" inscribed above the globes and "Champion" inscribed below them and the outer side plates featuring the Impact logo but without the owl design. Blue shading had filled the Impact logo, the owl design, and the globes and logos on the side plates, but in 2020, the belt was modified with red shading replacing the previous blue to reflect the new color of the Impact Wrestling logo introduced following the move to AXS TV.
At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose to unify the two championships. Following this, the 2020 red shaded Impact belt and the white strapped TNA belt were used jointly to represent the unified world championship; the unified title was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to being called the Impact World Championship, though still represented by both belts (with the white strap TNA belt being swapped out for the original black strap version shortly thereafter).[34][35] In August 2021, after Christian Cage won the title, the TNA belt was retired once again.[36]
Prior to
Reigns
Overall, there have been 59 reigns shared among 34 wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle, who won the championship by defeating Christian Cage and Sting in a three-way match on May 13, 2007, at TNA's Sacrifice event. Angle also holds the record for the most reigns, at six.[19] Josh Alexander's first reign is the shortest at three minutes while his second reign is the longest at 335 days. Tessa Blanchard is the only woman to ever win the world title. The title has been vacated seven different times.[37]
Moose is the current champion in his second reign. He defeated Alex Shelley on January 13, 2024, at Hard To Kill in Paradise, Nevada to win the title.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Caldwell, James (May 18, 2007). "Caldwell's TNA Impact report 5/17: Angle-Rhino, Daniels-Raven, blood, Gore, and Stomper". PW Torch.com. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
The fans chanted for Christian and Angle said he is the new TNA champion.
- ^ a b Westcott, Brian; Oliver, Earl. "TNA World Heavyweight Title history". solie.org. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
- ^ https://tnawrestling.com/wrestlers/
- TNA Home Video.
- ^ a b c d e "NWA/Trobich strips TNA/Cage/Team 3D of NWA branded Championships". National Wrestling Alliance. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c Martin, Adam. "Full NWA-TNA pay per view results - 6/19/02". WrestleView.com. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ^ a b Martin, Adam (May 13, 2007). "Complete match order for tonight's TNA Sacrifice PPV in Orlando, Florida". WrestleView.com. Retrieved July 8, 2009.
- ^ "Total Nonstop Action Wrestling presents: Sacrifice (2007)". TNA Sacrifice. 2007-05-13. In Demand.
- Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the originalon July 15, 2015. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
- ^ Martin, Adam (2007-05-14). "TNA TV tapings tonight in Orlando, FL, Steiner Brothers + Sacrifice video". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- ^ "Angle Stripped Of The TNA World Title". 2007-05-20. Archived from the original on 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
- .
- .
- Total Nonstop Action. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- Total Nonstop Action. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- ^ "Keller's TNA Impact report 6/7: Storm vs. Harris in big brawl, Christian-Tomko". PWTorch.com. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- Total Nonstop Action. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- ^ Caldwell, James (2007-06-17). "Caldwell's Slammiversary PPV report 6/17: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV". PW Torch.com. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
- ^ a b "History Of The TNA World Championships (as of September 2008)". TNA Wrestling.com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-07. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
- ^ "Moose declares himself TNA World Champion at Impact Rebellion". WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
- ^ "TNA World Heavyweight Title Officially Reinstated By IMPACT Wrestling".
- ^ Sacrifice results 3-13-21 - Impact Wrestling.com
- ^ And new..., and still... - 411 Mania.com
- ^ Tomich, Kevin (2010-08-10). "TNA News: Spoilers - Detailed TNA Impact TV taping report for August 19 episode with two big angles". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ "World Title Vacant: Tournament Details". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2010-08-22. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
- ^ a b Caldwell, James (2010-09-05). "Caldwell's TNA No Surrender PPV results 9/5: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV - Angle vs. Hardy, Pope vs. Anderson". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
- ^ Caldwell, James (2010-10-10). "Caldwell's TNA Bound for Glory PPV results 10-10-10: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of live PPV - Angle vs. Anderson vs. Hardy, "they" reveal". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ Keller, Wade (2010-09-16). "Keller's TNA Impact report 9/16: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Spike TV show with Jeff Hardy vs. Kurt Angle". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
- ^ Caldwell, James (2010-11-08). "TNA News: Impact TV taping spoiler - TNA to introduce new title belt on Thursday's Impact (w/pic)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
- ^ Justice, Jesse (2010-11-12). "Jeff Hardy's Immortal Champion Title". Top Rope Belts. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
- ^ Gerweck, Steve (2011-03-15). "Spoilers: TNA Impact for March 17th". WrestleView. Archived from the original on 2011-03-18. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
- )
- ^ "TNA Impact Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Belt is now available for purchase!". Wildcat Championship Belts. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
- ^ Impact Wrestling Staff (March 16, 2021). "IMPACT! on AXS TV Results – March 16, 2021". Impact Wrestling. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
- ^ Irene's Impact Wrestling review 4-8-21 - 411 Mania.com
- ^ Thomas, Jeremy (August 19, 2021). "TNA World Heavyweight Championship Retired on Impact Wrestling". 411mania. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
- Total Nonstop Action. TNA Wrestling.com. Archived from the originalon 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
External links
- Impact Wrestling World Championship at Cagematch.net
- Media related to Wrestlers as the Impact World Champion at Wikimedia Commons