The TNA World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It was the highest ranked championship in TNA. It was unveiled on May 14, 2007 at the taping of TNA's primary television program, TNA Impact!; this episode of Impact! did not air until May 17, 2007. The inaugural champion was officially Kurt Angle.
Before the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was created, TNA held control over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship due to an agreement between TNA and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the organization which owned the NWA Championship. In 2007, the agreement between TNA and the NWA ended, leading to the creation of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. TNA recognize NWA Title holders as TNA Champions.
On July 1 2015, Pro Wrestling Illustrated stopped recognising the championship as a World Championship. From 2017, after TNA was sold and officially became Imapct Wrestling, the title became the Impact Wrestling World Championship and briefly the GFW World Championship/
Championship Lineage[]
Title Change Dates are TV Airing Dates
NWA World Heavyweight Championship[]
The NWA Title was vacated on May 28, 2002 when Dan Severn was stripped of the title after failing to make a defense in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. The Title was made exclusive to TNA.
- Ken Shamrock - June 19, 2002 - NWA TNA
- Ron Killings - August 7, 2002 NWA TNA
- Jeff Jarrett - November 20, 2002 - NWA TNA
- A.J. Styles - June 11, 2003 - NWA TNA
- Jeff Jarrett - October 22, 2003 - NWA TNA
- A.J. Styles - April 21, 2004 - NWA TNA
- Ron Killings - May 19, 2004 - NWA TNA
- Jeff Jarrett - June 2, 2004
- Ray Gonzalez - April 3, 2005 - Title change not recognized by TNA
- A.J. Styles - May 15, 2005 - Hard Justice
- Raven - June 19, 2005 - Slammiversary
- Jeff Jarrett - September 15, 2005 - International Incident
- Rhino - October 23, 2005 - Bound For Glory
- Jeff Jarrett - November 3, 2005 - Impact
- Christian Cage - February 12, 2006 - Against All Odds
- Jeff Jarrett - June 18, 2006 - Slammiversary
- Sting - October 22, 2006 - Bound For Glory
- Abyss - November 19, 2006 - Genesis
- Christian Cage - January 14, 2007 - Final Resolution
Vacated — May 13, 2007 Cage was stripped of the championship when the NWA regained control of the title.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship[]
- Kurt Angle - May 13, 2007 - Sacrifice
Vacated — May 17, 2007
- Kurt Angle - June 17, 2007 - Slammiversary
- Sting - October 14, 2007 - Bound For Glory
- Kurt Angle - October 25, 2007 - Impct
- Samoa Joe - April 13, 2008 LockDown
- Sting - October 12, 2008 - Bound For Glory
- Mick Foley - April 19, 2009 Lockdown
- Kurt Angle - June 21, 2009 - Slammiversary
- A.J. Styles - September 20, 2009 - No Surrender
- Rob Van Dam - April 19, 2010 - Impact
Vacated — August 19, 2010
- Jeff Hardy - October 10, 2010 - Bound For Glory
- Mr. Anderson - January 9, 2011 - Genesis
- Jeff Hardy - February 13, 2011 - Against All Oddds
- Sting - March 3, 2011 - Impact
- Mr. Anderson - June 12, 2011 - Slammiversary
- Sting - July 14, 2011 - Impact
- Kurt Angle - August 7, 2011 - Hardcore Justice
- James Storm - October 20, 2011 - Impact
- Bobby Roode - November 3, 2011 - Impact
- Austin Aries - July 8, 2012 - Destination X
- Jeff Hardy - October 14, 2012 - Bound For Glory
- Bully Ray - March 10, 2013 - Lockdown
- Chris Sabin - July 18, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Destination X
- Bully Ray - August 15, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice
- A.J. Styles - October 20, 2013 - Bound For Glory
Vacated — October 29, 2013 - Storyline Vacation
- Magnus - December 6, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Final Resolution
- Eric Young - April 10, 2014 - Impact
- Lashley - June 19, 2014 - Impact
- Bobby Roode - October 29, 2014 - Impact
- Lashley - January 7, 2015 - Impact
- Kurt Angle - March 20, 2015 - Impact
- Ethan Carter III - July 1 2015 - Impact
- Matt Hardy - October 4 2015 - Bound For Glory
Vacated - October 8 2015 - Vacated due to a legal injunction filed by Ethan Carter III
- Ethan Carter III - January 5 2016 - Impact
- Matt Hardy - January 19 2016 - Impact
- Drew Galloway - March 15 2016 - Impact
- Lashley - June 12 2016 - Slammiversary
- Eddie Edwards - October 6 2016 - Impact
- Bobby Lashley - January 26 2017 - Impact
Championship became the Impact Wrestling World Championship on March 2 2017
Impact Wrestling World Championship[]
- Alberto El Patrón - July 2, 2017 - Slammiversary
- This was a unification match to unify the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the original GFW Global Championship.
Vacated - August 14, 2017 - Vacated due to Alberto El Patrón's suspension.
- Eli Drake - August 17, 2017 - Impact Wrestling
- Austin Aries - February 1, 2018 - Impact Wrestling
- Pentagón Jr. April 22, 2018 - Redemption
- Austin Aries - May 31, 2018 - Impact Wrestling: Under Pressure
- Unified with the Impact Wrestling Grand Championship.
- Johnny Impact - October 14, 2018 - Bound For Glory
- Brian Cage - April 28, 2019 - Rebellion
- Sami Callihan - October 29, 2019 - Impact Wrestling
- Tessa Blanchard - January 12, 2020 - Hard To Kill
Vacated - June 25, 2020 - After a period of inactivity during which Blanchard missed multiple tapings due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, her contract was terminated by Impact Wrestling and she was stripped of the title.
- Eddie Edwards -- July 18, 2020 - Slammiversary
- Eric Young - September 1, 2020 - Impact Wrestling
- Rich Swann - October 24, 2020 - Bound For Glory
- At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Swann defeated Moose to unify the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, which was officially sanctioned as a separate title, with the Impact World Championship. The TNA title was deactivated while the Impact title became briefly known as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to Impact World Championship. Swann would carry both belts to represent the championship.
- Kenny Omega -- April 25, 2021 - Rebellion
- Omega also defended the AEW World Championship.
- Christian Cage - August 13, 2021 - AEW Rampage
- Josh Alexander - October 23, 2021 - Bound for Glory
- Alexander voluntarily vacated the X Division Championship in exchange for an Impact World Championship match at the event.
- Moose - October 23, 2021 - Bound for Glory
- Josh Alexander - April 23, 2022 - Rebellion
Vacated - April 6, 2023 - Impact Wrestling - Vacated due to Josh Alexander requiring surgery for a torn triceps.
- Steve Maclin - April 16, 2023 - Rebellion
- Alex Shelley - June 9, 2023 - All Odds
- Moose - January 13 2024 - Hard to Kill