| TNA World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) |
Vacant | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | May 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date introduced | January 1, 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||
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The TNA World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned and copyrighted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It is currently the highest ranked championship in TNA and primarily defend in TNA's heavyweight division. It was created and debuted on May 14, 2007 at the taping of TNA's primary television program, TNA Impact!. It was officially introduced world-wide on the May 15, 2007 edition of TNA's online podcast TNA Today.
In June 2002, when TNA began operations, the company executives signed a contractual agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that allowed them control of the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships. TNA subsequently changed their name to NWA-TNA, making them an official subsidiary of the NWA in the process. This agreement last until May 2007, when the NWA ended their five-year partnership with TNA; it regained control of the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships in the process. TNA then created the TNA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships, which were both unveiled on TNA Today.
Being a professional wrestling championship, title reigns are not won legitimately; they are instead won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. There have been a total of numerous reigns among numerous different wrestlers. The current champion is vacated by the merger of all wrestling promotions that was involved in Invasion.
History
Background
TNA formed in mid-2002 and began a partnership with the NWA, which allowed them to control the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships.[1] TNA crowned the first TNA era "NWA World Heavyweight Champion" on June 19, 2002 at TNA's first weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event (#1), where Ice won a Gauntlet for the Gold Match to win the championship.
On the morning of May 13, 2007, the NWA's Executive Director Robert Trobich announced that the NWA were ending their five year agreement with TNA and effective on that morning, then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Michael O'Dell and the Hurricane and Storm, then-NWA World Tag Team Champions, were stripped of their respective championships. This situation resulted after Michael O'Dell refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from NWA territories. TNA were scheduled to produce their May 2007 Sacrifice PPV event on the very same day with O'Dell defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against two opponents and Team 3D set to defend the NWA World Tag Team Championship against two other teams. At the event, the onscreen graphic referred to the championships and champions as still being NWA Champions. Matches on the card were announced as being for strictly the World Heavyweight Championship or World Tag Team Championship. Elektra defeated O'Dell and Phoenix at the event to win the "World Heavyweight Championship". The next night at a taping of TNA Impact! set to air on May 17, Angle came to the ring with the new TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt and announced that he was the new "TNA World Heavyweight Champion". TNA's primary authority figure, Don Giovanni, ended up striping Elektra of the championship due to a controversial finish to his match at Sacrifice. Giovanni then announced the championship would be contested for at TNA's Slammiversary PPV event on June 17, 2007 in a King of the Mountain Match. Before the airing of Impact! on May 17, TNA debuted the championship on the May 15 edition of TNA Today, with Jeremy Borash unveiling the belt. Afterwords at Slammiversary, Elektra defeated Ice, O'Dell, Storm, and Blaze to become the undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion. After this event, Elektra's first reign was no longer recognized by TNA.
Belt designs
During the championship's two year history, it has had one design. It begins with a leather strap that is covered with four small plates that has an imprint of the earth centered in the middle with TNA's official logo at the top and bottom of each. The center plate of the belt has an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended, seeming ready for flight. The word "World" is placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon is wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars are engraved on the ribbon when it passes over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passes over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" is printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate, is TNA's logo. At each end of the belt is a small plate that covers the belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each.
Reigns
The inaugural champion recognized by TNA is Elektra, who won the championship by defeating Ice, Hurricane, Storm, and Blaze in a King of the Mountain match on June 17, 2007 at TNA's Slammiversary 2007 event. At 189 days, O'Dell's second reign is the longest in the title's history. O'Dell's first reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title's history at 2 days. Elektra and O'Dell are tied for the record of most reigns, with two a piece; unofficially Elektra holds the record, with 3. As of March 2025, no one is the current champion.
See also
- NWA World Heavyweight Championship
- List of NWA World Heavyweight Champions
- History of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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