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TNA World Heavyweight Championship
A black leather strap decorated with gold and silver plaques.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt
(May 2007 — November 2010)
Details
PromotionTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)
Date establishedMay 14, 2007[3]
Current champion(s)Bobby Roode[1]
Date wonOctober 26, 2011[2]
(aired November 3, 2011[4])
Statistics
First champion(s)Kurt Angle[3][5]
Most reignsKurt Angle (5 reigns)
Longest reignBobby Roode (4768+ days)
Shortest reignKurt Angle (1 day)[5]
Oldest championSting (52 years, 116 days)
Youngest championSamoa Joe (29 years, 27 days)
Heaviest championSamoa Joe (280 lb (130 kg))
Lightest championA.J. Styles and Jeff Hardy (215 lb (98 kg))

The TNA World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. It is currently the highest ranked championship in TNA and is primarily defended in TNA's heavyweight division.[1] 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.[3] The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle.

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a scripted match. 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. There have been a total of nineteen reigns among ten different wrestlers. Bobby Roode is the current champion in his first reign.[1]

History

The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion formed in May 2002.[6] Later that same year TNA was granted control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body; subsequently becoming an official NWA territory as NWA–TNA.[7] On June 19, 2002, NWA–TNA held its first show; a weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event.[8] The main event of the telecast was a twenty–man Gauntlet for the Gold match—involves all twenty men trying to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate them, until there are two men left who wrestle a standard match—to become the first ever TNA–era NWA World Heavyweight Champion.[8] Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win the vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as Special Guest Referee at the event.[8]

Creation

The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until the morning of May 13, 2007.[7] On that day, NWA's Executive Director Robert Trobich announced that the NWA were ending their five–year agreement with TNA, which had allowed them full control over both titles.[7] Trobich went on to state that effective that morning, then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and the Team 3D pairing of Brother Ray and Brother Devon, then-NWA World Tag Team Champions, were stripped of their respective championships.[7] The alleged motivation behind these actions was because Cage refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from NWA territories.[7] That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice 2007 PPV event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships.[9] On the card, Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a match involving three competitors, also known as a Three Way match.[9]

That night before, the onscreen graphic used to refer to the champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA Champions.[10] However, the ring announcers for the encounters proclaimed the matches as being strictly for the "World Heavyweight Championship" or the "World Tag Team Championship".[10] Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the "World Heavyweight Championship".[11]

TNA held a set of tapings for the next two episodes of TNA Impact! on May 14, with the episodes set to air on tape delay on May 17 and May 24, 2007.[12] At the first taping, Angle came to the ring with the new TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt and announced that he was the "new TNA World Heavyweight Champion".[3] TNA commentator Mike Tenay announced when Angle made his way to the ring that Management Director Jim Cornette, TNA's on-screen authority figure at the time, "made the decision that due to TNA's growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts"; there–by not acknowledging the NWA ending their agreement with TNA and giving a storyline explanation as to why the championship was created.[3] Later on during the broadcast, Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship due to a controversial finish to the match at Sacrifice.[3][13] Cornette 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—a match which involves five participants racing to gain a pinfall or submission to become eligible to hang a championship belt to win.[3] On May 15, 2007 Jeremy Borash unveiled the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online podcast TNA Today.[14]

Championship tournament

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; a small single-elimination tournament. Angle defeated Rhino in the first bout to gain entry on the May 17 episode of Impact!.[3][15] On May 24 episode of Impact!, Samoa Joe defeated Sting to become the second participant.[16] The third qualification match was held on the May 31 episode of Impact! between A.J. Styles and Tomko, which Styles won.[17] The next bout pitted Chris Harris against James Storm on the June 7 episode Impact!, which ended in a double disqualification; neither man advanced to the King of the Mountain match.[18] The final qualification match was won by Christian Cage over Abyss on the June 14 episode of Impact!.[19] Angle ended up winning the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary over Joe, Cage, Styles, and Harris, who was a mystery participant chosen by Cornette, to become the "undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion".[20] Angle's first reign is no longer recognized by TNA according to their official title history as of September 2008.[21]

A black leather strap decorated with gold and silver plaques.
A close-up of the center plate of the original design of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship
File:TNAImmortalTitle1.JPG
The TNA Immortal Championship belt

Belt design

During the championship's four year history, it has had three designs. The original belt, unveiled in May 2007, begins with a leather strap that is covered with four small plates that has an imprint of a globe 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.[1]

At the November 8, 2010, tapings of the November 11 edition of Impact!, TNA introduced a new purple design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal championship".[22] The new design was created by Top Rope Belts and consisted of a silver center plate with a masked head design engraved, the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There are four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates.[23]

The Immortal belt was replaced by a new design at the March 14, 2011, tapings of the March 17 edition of Impact!, introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting.[24][25] The new design features seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The largest plate is the center plate with faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges. Over the center plate is a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it the words "Heavyweight Champion" are engraved. On each side of the center plate is a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two feature separate corresponding halfs of a globe. The eighth similarly designed plate is nearest to the tip on one end of the strap.[26]

Reigns

Main article: List of TNA World Heavyweight Champions

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.[11] TNA however recognizes Angle becoming the inaugural champion after he defeated Samoa Joe, Chris Harris, Christian Cage, and A.J. Styles in a King of the Mountain match on June 17, 2007 at TNA's Slammiversary 2007 event.[20][21] At 4768+ days, Bobby Roode's current first reign is the longest in the title's history. Angle's first reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title's history at 1 day. Angle also holds record for most reigns, with five, however TNA only recognizes four of them.[21] Bobby Roode is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated James Storm on October 26, 2011 at the tapings of the November 3 edition of Impact Wrestling.[2][4] Overall, there have been nineteen reigns among ten different wrestlers.[5][13]

See also

References

General
  • TNA Wrestling (2008-05-20). Slammiversary 2007: King Of The Mountain. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  • TNA Wrestling (2007-05-17). TNA: The King Of The Mountain Match Is Announced. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
Specific
  1. ^ a b c "Current Champions List at TNAWrestling.com". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. TNA Wrestling.com. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  2. ^ a b "Impact Spoiler - World Title match result for 11/3". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2011-10-26. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Caldwell, James (2007-05-18). "Caldwell's TNA Impact report 5/17: Angle-Rhino, Daniels-Raven, blood, Gore, and Stomper". PW Torch.com. Retrieved 2009-05-20. The fans chanted for Christian and Angle said he is the new TNA champion.
  4. ^ a b Keller, Wade (2011-11-03). "Keller's TNA Impact Wrestling report 11/3: Ongoing live coverage of Storm defending against Roode". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  5. ^ a b c Westcott, Brian. "TNA World Heavyweight Title history". solie.org. Retrieved 2009-05-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. TNA Wrestling: Year One. TNA Home Video.
  7. ^ a b c d e "NWA/Trobich strips TNA/Cage/Team 3D of NWA branded Championships". National Wrestling Alliance. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  8. ^ a b c Martin, Adam. "Full NWA-TNA pay per view results - 6/19/02". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  9. ^ a b Martin, Adam (2007-05-13). "Complete match order for tonight's TNA Sacrifice PPV in Orlando, Florida". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  10. ^ a b "Total Nonstop Action Wrestling presents: Sacrifice (2007)". TNA Sacrifice. 2007-05-13. In Demand. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b Sokol, Chris (2007-05-14). "World title picture muddied after good Sacrifice". Slam Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  12. ^ Martin, Adam (2007-05-14). "TNA TV tapings tonight in Orlando, FL, Steiner Brothers + Sacrifice video". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  13. ^ a b "Angle Stripped Of The TNA World Title". web.archive.org. 2007-05-20. Archived from the original on 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  14. ^ The 5/15 "TNA Today" - New World Title revealed!. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. YouTube. 15 May 2007. Event occurs at 0:30 –3:15. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  15. ^ TNA Wrestling (2007-05-17). TNA: Kurt Angle Advances To King Of The Mountain. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  16. ^ Martin, Adam (2007-05-24). "iMPACT! Results - 5/24/07 (Samoa Joe advances the in 'KOTM Tourny')". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  17. ^ Martin, Adam (2007-05-31). "iMPACT! Results - 5/31/07 (AJ Styles advances in KOTM Tourny, more)". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  18. ^ "Keller's TNA Impact report 6/7: Storm vs. Harris in big brawl, Christian-Tomko". PWTorch.com. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  19. ^ Martin, Adam (2007-06-14). "iMPACT! Results - 6/14/07 (Final KOTM Qualifier, Slammiversary PPV)". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  20. ^ a b 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.
  21. ^ a b c "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.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Justice, Jesse (2010-11-12). "Jeff Hardy's Immortal Champion Title". Top Rope Belts. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
  24. ^ Gerweck, Steve (2011-03-15). "Spoilers: TNA Impact for March 17th". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  25. ^ Bishop, Matt (2011-03-18). "Impact: Title picture still a mess". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  26. ^ "TNA Impact Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Belt is now avaialable for purchase!". Wildcat Championship Belts. Retrieved 2011-08-01.

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