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/
Contents
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 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- Ron Killings: August 7, 2002 TNA Weekly PPVs
- Jeff Jarrett: November 20, 2002 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- A.J. Styles: June 11, 2003 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- Jeff Jarrett 2: October 22, 2003 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- A.J. Styles 2: April 21, 2004 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- Ron Killings 2: May 19, 2004 - TNA Weekly PPVs
- Jeff Jarrett 3: June 2, 2004
- Ray Gonzalez: April 3, 2005 - Title change not recognized by TNA
- A.J. Styles 3: May 15, 2005 - TNA Hard Justice 2005
- Raven: June 19, 2005 - TNA Slammiversary 2005
- Jeff Jarrett 4: September 15, 2005 - International Incident
- Rhino: October 23, 2005 - TNA Bound for Glory 2005
- Jeff Jarrett 5: November 3, 2005 - TNA Impact
- Christian Cage: February 12, 2006 - TNA Against All Odds 2006
- Jeff Jarrett 6: June 18, 2006 - TNA Slammiversary 2006
- Sting: October 22, 2006 - TNA Bound for Glory 2006
- Abyss: November 19, 2006 - TNA Genesis 2006
- Christian Cage 2: January 14, 2007 - TNA Final Resolution 2007
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 - TNA Sacrifice 2007
Vacated — May 17, 2007
- Kurt Angle 2: June 17, 2007 - TNA Slammiversary 2007
- Sting: October 14, 2007 - TNA Bound for Glory 2007
- Kurt Angle 3: October 25, 2007 - TNA Impact
- Samoa Joe: April 13, 2008 TNA Lockdown 2008
- Sting 2: October 12, 2008 - TNA Bound for Glory 2008
- Mick Foley: April 19, 2009 TNA Lockdown 2009
- Kurt Angle 4: June 21, 2009 - TNA Slammiversary 2009
- A.J. Styles: September 20, 2009 - TNA No Surrender 2009
- Rob Van Dam: April 19, 2010 - TNA Impact
Vacated — August 19, 2010
- Jeff Hardy: October 10, 2010 - TNA Bound for Glory 2010
- Mr. Anderson: January 9, 2011 - TNA Genesis 2011
- Jeff Hardy 2: February 13, 2011 - TNA Against All Odds 2011
- Sting 3: March 3, 2011 - TNA Impact
- Mr. Anderson 2: June 12, 2011 - TNA Slammiversary 2011
- Sting 4: July 14, 2011 - Impact Wrestling
- Kurt Angle 5: August 7, 2011 - TNA Hardcore Justice 2011
- James Storm: October 20, 2011 - Impact Wrestling
- Bobby Roode: November 3, 2011 - Impact Wrestling
- Austin Aries: July 8, 2012 - TNA Destination X 2012
- Jeff Hardy 3: October 14, 2012 - TNA Bound for Glory 2012
- Bully Ray: March 10, 2013 - TNA Lockdown 2013
- Chris Sabin: July 18, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Destination X 2013
- Bully Ray 2: August 15, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice 2013
- A.J. Styles 2: October 20, 2013 - TNA Bound for Glory 2013
Vacated — October 29, 2013 - Storyline Vacation
- Magnus: December 6, 2013 - Impact Wrestling: Final Resolution 2013
- Eric Young: April 10, 2014 - Impact Wrestling
- Lashley: June 19, 2014 - Impact Wrestling
- Bobby Roode 2: October 29, 2014 - Impact Wrestling
- Lashley 2: January 7, 2015 - Impact Wrestling
- Kurt Angle 6: March 20, 2015 - Impact Wrestling
- Ethan Carter III: July 1 2015 - Impact Wrestling
- Matt Hardy: October 4 2015 - TNA Bound For Glory 2015
Vacated - October 8 2015 - Vacated due to a legal injunction filed by Ethan Carter III
- Ethan Carter III 2 : January 5 2016 - Impact Wrestling
- Matt Hardy: January 19 2016 - Impact Wrestling
- Drew Galloway: March 15 2016 - Impact Wrestling
- Lashley 3: June 12 2016 - TNA Slammiversary 2016
- Eddie Edwards: October 6 2016 - Impact Wrestling
- Bobby Lashley 4 - January 26 2017 - Impact Wrestling
Championship became the Impact Wrestling World Championship on March 2 2017