The

Impact World Championship The Impact World Championship is a professional wrestling Professional wrestling championship#World championships, world championship created and promoted by Impact Wrestling. It is the promotion's principal championship. Like most professional w ...

Champions - Impact Wrestling.com
/ref> is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

world heavyweight championship owned by the

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Impact Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...

, formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). From June 2002 to May 2007, TNA used the

NWA World Heavyweight Championship The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is Tyrus, who is i ...

as their primary championship as part of an agreement with the

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA ...

(NWA). On May 13, 2007, the NWA abruptly ended the arrangement and retrieved control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. On the same night, TNA were set to host their annual

Sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

pay-per-view event, in which the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was to be defended by then-champion

Christian Cage William Jason Reso (born November 30, 1973) is a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Christian Cage. He is best known for his tenure in WWE under the ring name Christ ...

against

Kurt Angle Kurt Steven Angle (born December 9, 1968) is an American retired professional wrestler, Wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle 100 kg, Olympic gold medalist in American freestyle wrestling, and former Collegiate wrestling, ...

and Sting in a

three-way match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

. 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 James Mark "Jim" Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author and podcaster who has previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, promoter, trainer, and occasional prof ...

citing a problematic finish to the title match. The ownership of the championship was decided on June 17, 2007, at TNA's

Slammiversary Slammiversary is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the American promotion Impact Wrestling. It is one of Impact's “Big Four” PPV events (along with Hard to Kill, Rebellion, and Bound for Glory), and celebrates ...

event in a

King of the Mountain match The King of the Mountain match (Queen of the Mountain when female wrestlers are involved) is a professional wrestling match exclusive to Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). Match format The five competitors in the match st ...

involving Angle and Cage along with

A.J. Styles Allen Neal Jones (born June 2, 1977), better known by his ring name AJ Styles (also stylized as A.J. Styles), is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. Regarded as one of the best ...

, Chris Harris and

Samoa Joe Nuufolau Joel Seanoa (born March 17, 1979), is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Samoa Joe who is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Joe is currently a double champion - in his first reign both as AEW ...

, which Angle won. 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. All title changes have occurred at Impact Wrestling-promoted events; reigns that occurred 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 days, Bobby Roode's first reign is the longest in the title's history.

Josh Alexander Joshua Lemay (born May 29, 1987) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he performs under the ring name Josh Alexander. He is a two-time Impact World Champion, with his second reign being the longest reig ...

's first reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title's history at only a few minutes.

is the current champion in his second reign, having won it on April 23, 2022, at

Rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

against

Moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

. Overall, there have been 56 reigns shared among 32 wrestlers, with six vacancies.

Title history

Names

Reigns

For a list of world champions in TNA between 2002 and 2007, see the

list of NWA World Heavyweight Champions The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight championship owned and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). It is the promotion's premier title. NWA currently recognizes 101 ...

. As of , .

Combined reigns

As of , .

References

External links