TNA World Heavyweight Championship

Infobox championship

---

caption=Kurt Angle holding up the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt.
championshipname=TNA World Heavyweight Championship
currentholder=Samoa Joe
won=April 13, 2008
promotion=Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
created=May 14, 2007
mostreigns=Kurt Angle nobr|(2 reigns)
firstchamp=Kurt Angle
longestreign=Samoa Joe nobr|(182 days)
shortestreign=Sting nobr|(2 days)
oldest=Sting nobr|(48 years, 208 days)
youngest=Samoa Joe nobr|(29 years, 27 days)
heaviest=Samoa Joe nobr|(convert|290|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on)
lightest=Kurt Angle nobr|(convert|250|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on)
pastlook

The Total Nonstop Action (TNA) World Heavyweight Championship is the primary professional wrestling championship in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

History

The start of the company

In 2002, Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett formed TNA, in the process negotiating a licensing deal with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that granted them rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

TNA withdrew from the NWA in 2004, but secured the right to continue to use the two NWA championships until 2014. TNA were permitted to use the titles any way they saw fit, without requiring approval of the NWA Board of Directors. While these titles were still defended in several NWA territories and federations, control of the titles was exclusive to TNA.

Title creation—NWA title vacated

On May 13, 2007, the NWA announced that it had ended their ongoing business relationship with TNA and stripped Christian Cage and Team 3D of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championship, respectively, before the TNA pay-per-view event Sacrifice could take place.cite web |url=http://one.revver.com/watch/267425/flv/affiliate/87879 |title=NWA/Trobich strips TNA/Cage/Team 3-D of NWA branded Championships |accessdate=2007-07-19 |date=2007-05-13 ] Despite this, TNA continued to recognize its TNA title holders as "NWA champions", until May 14, when the new TNA titles were officially commissioned and used during television tapings. [cite web |url=http://www.tnawrestling.com/info/history/tnaworldtitle.html |title=TNA Wrestling Title History |accessdate=2007-05-15 |publisher=Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ] [cite web |url=http://www.tnawrestlingnews.com/headlines/181198405.shtml |title=TNA iMPACT! Tapings (2 Weeks) |date=2007-05-14 |author=Wojcik, A. |accessdate=2007-07-01 |publisher=TNA Wrestling News ] The TNA World Heavyweight Championship was then unveiled on [http://www.tnawrestling.com TNAwrestling.com] on May 15, and immediately given "World" status by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. [cite web |url=http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/fullnews2.php?all=1246 |title=TNA Today Exclusive: New World Heavyweight Title Revealed |date=2007-05-15 |accessdate=2007-05-15 |author=Banks, B. |publisher=Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ] On TNA programing, past NWA Champions in TNA are now referred to as "TNA World Heavyweight Champions" instead of "NWA World Heavyweight Champions".

For previous World Heavyweight Champions in TNA see List of NWA World Heavyweight Champions.

Current champion

The current champion is Samoa Joe, who is in his first reign. He defeated Kurt Angle on April 13, 2008 at Lockdown

Title history

Unofficial reigns

These reigns are not officially recognized by TNA for controversial reasons.

List of combined reigns

As of October 12 2008.

ee also

*Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
*NWA World Heavyweight Championship

References

External links

* [http://www.tnawrestling.com/content/blogsection/5/37/ TNA Wrestling.com - List of TNA Champions]