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109-749: Before the championship was created, TNA controlled the NWA World Heavyweight Championship via an agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 2007, the agreement between TNA and the NWA ended, leading to the creation of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The championship was unveiled on May 14, 2007, at the taping of TNA's primary television program, Impact! , which aired on May 17, 2007. The inaugural champion

218-539: A Six-way elimination match on July 20, 2024, at Slammiversary in Montreal , Quebec , Canada to win the title. NWA World Heavyweight Championship The NWA World's Heavyweight Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion . Although formally established in 1948, its lineage has been traditionally traced back to

327-560: A Tuxedo match , and Last Man Standing match . The Storm/Roode match was originally a Bull Rope match but Storm asked Carter to change it to a Florida Death match , which was not on the "Wheel of Dixie", which Carter agreed to. Also, the winner would be decided at TNA Final Resolution of 2013. To date, the championship has had seven belt designs, with the original title belt (which was unveiled in May 2007) having on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended. The word "World"

436-698: A triple threat match , which was originally to be for the Impact World Championship but reigning champion Tessa Blanchard missed the tapings due to the COVID-19 pandemic . While the title was not recognized as an official championship by Impact, Moose had several title defenses. On the February 23, 2021, episode of Impact! , Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore officially sanctioned Moose's self-proclaimed championship. At Sacrifice , Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Moose to unify

545-450: A weekly pay-per-view event . The main event of the telecast was a twenty-man Gauntlet for the Gold match in which 20 men sought to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate others, until there were two men left who wrestle a standard singles match to become the first ever TNA-era NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win

654-769: A Domed Globe design. During the mid-1990s, the NWA World Tag Team Championship was represented by Domed Globe belts, which were used during the NWA's partnership with IWA Japan . Numerous other championship belts have used the Domed Globe design, with some being NWA-sanctioned championships (such as the NWA Women's Pacific Championship ) and others being unauthorized by the NWA (such as the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship ). The fifth design

763-407: A Montreal rematch on July 24. It had been planned that the NWA would present Thesz and Carpentier as rival champions in different cities following a similar pattern to the successful title dispute matches between Thesz and Leo Nomellini in 1955. Carpentier would also be able to make appearances in the U.S. as champion while Thesz was on an overseas tour. However, as a result of various disputes within

872-440: A championship committee, which was established in 2004 to help the director of authority to book matches and to keep contenders in proper order. The committee members also served as guest judges for Impact! when broadcast by Fox Sports Net as all matches had a time limit and if the match went to time, a judge had to make the call as to who had won. By June 2005, the committee was dropped and only Larry Zbyszko made appearances for

981-713: A failed bid to go national and almost filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to compete with the WWF . Turner Broadcasting purchased the company, because it had a high rated program airing on the WTBS cable station. Completing the deal in November 1988, Turner began changing the company to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which maintained a partnership with the NWA and continued promoting the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair. WCW stayed in

1090-423: A globe centered with TNA's logo at the top and bottom of each. At each end of the title belt there was a small plate that covered the championship belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each. At the November 8, 2010 tapings of the November 11 episode of Impact! , TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal Championship", as part of

1199-540: A globe with "World" inscribed above the globes and "Champion" inscribed below them and the outer side plates featuring the Impact logo but without the owl design. Blue shading had filled the Impact logo, the owl design, and the globes and logos on the side plates, but in 2020, the belt was modified with red shading replacing the previous blue to reflect the new color of the Impact Wrestling logo introduced following

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1308-619: A governing body. After nearly a year, the organization planned to scheduled a tournament to crown a new champion and brought back the "Ten Pounds of Gold" to represent this new champion. By 1994, the Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) territory became the NWA's most televised affiliated wrestling promotion. The NWA decided to hold an NWA World Title Tournament through ECW at the ECW Arena in August 1994, which

1417-540: A licensing deal with the NWA and its affiliated promotions, with NWA-TNA receiving control over the NWA World Heavyweight and NWA World Tag Team titles. While working out a cable deal, the Jarretts put NWA-TNA on weekly pay-per-view during the company's first two years of existence. The NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time, Dan Severn, was unable to appear on the inaugural NWA-TNA PPV card, and he

1526-636: A match to Freddie Blassie which created the basis for the Los Angeles version of the WWA World Heavyweight Championship . The title ceased to exist when the WWA returned to the NWA on October 1, 1968. The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which later evolved into today's WWE , was the major wrestling promotion in the northeast United States in the early 1960s. Vincent J. McMahon 's Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC),

1635-584: A right to the physical Big Gold Belt and its historical lineage per a signed agreement between the previous NWA President Seiji Sakaguchi and WCW. Per this court ruling, the title belt dropped the recognition as being the NWA World Heavyweight title but continued to be billed as the World Heavyweight Championship by WCW. Soon after, the Big Gold Belt was defended without any company affiliation, even being referred to simply as

1744-463: A series of matches dubbed the "Seven Levels of Hate" – a best of seven series between the two wrestlers. The fourth match of the series was a two out of three falls contest held on July 21, 2012, in Kansas City, Missouri. The NWA sanctioned the match as a world championship match and Pearce emerged victorious to become a five-time world champion. Both wrestlers were tied at three matches apiece when

1853-474: A series of standard wrestling matches that took place on Impact! leading up to the event, with Angle defeating Rhino in the first bout to gain entry on the May 17 episode of Impact! . On the May 24 episode of Impact! , Samoa Joe defeated Sting to become the second participant. The third qualification match was held on the May 31 episode of Impact! between A.J. Styles and Tomko , which Styles won. The next bout pitted Chris Harris against James Storm on

1962-535: A series of vice presidents and bookers , ranging from those with little wrestling experience to those entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion until Eric Bischoff took control in 1994. His tenure saw the creation of Nitro , the start of the Monday Night War and the formation of the New World Order . Declining ratings saw Bischoff ousted in 1999 and former WWF writer Vince Russo

2071-591: A storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings . The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10. * Angle and Hardy wrestled another draw on the September 16 edition of Impact! , which led to Eric Bischoff making the final match at Bound for Glory a three–way. On October 29, 2013, TNA President Dixie Carter vacated

2180-569: Is commonly referred to as the " Big Gold Belt ". In 1985, Jim Crockett Jr. of Jim Crockett Promotions commissioned Charles Crumrine, a silversmith in Reno, Nevada specializing in rodeo-style belt buckles, to produce the new design. The belt made its debut in February 1986. When WCW left the NWA in 1993, the Big Gold Belt continued serving as the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship , then

2289-442: Is commonly referred to as the "Ten Pounds of Gold" or the “Domed Globe Belt”. It is the design most commonly identified with the title. It has also been referred to on Championship Wrestling from Hollywood , NWA Powerrr , and in other NWA-related media as "Sweet Charlotte", a nickname coined by Adam Pearce in 2008 as a nod to the hometown of Ric Flair , one of the belt's most famous holders. The original Ten Pounds of Gold belt

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2398-520: Is often referred to as the " Lou Thesz Belt". The championship belt, which was a holdover from Thesz's reign as the National Wrestling Association's champion , consisted of seven plates and a leather strap. The main plate had a royal crown, a wrestling ring, and a five-pointed star in a vertical alignment, top to bottom down the center. A belt with a similar design was given to Rikidōzan when he defeated Thesz in 1958 to claim

2507-644: The ACC World Heavyweight Championship and later Boston's Big Time Wrestling (BTW) Heavyweight Championship. The "Crown" version of the championship belt debuted in 1959. The North American Wrestling Alliance (NAWA, later the Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA)) in Los Angeles recognized Carpentier as NWA champion in July 1959 as part of gradually splitting from the NWA. On June 12, 1961, Carpentier lost

2616-505: The Immortal storyline. The new design consisted of a purple strap with a silver center plate depicting a masked head (designed to resemble Hardy's face with face paint), the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There were four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the title belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates. The Immortal title belt

2725-580: The NWA 70th Anniversary Show , the New Year's Clash pop-up event , and the 2019 Crockett Cup . By July 2019, the NWA would begin to transition into a singular wrestling promotion, with the NWA announcing television tapings in Atlanta for a new standalone weekly series. The series was later revealed as NWA Powerrr , which has since hosted occasional NWA World's Heavyweight Championship matches. During

2834-690: The NWA International Heavyweight Championship , which Rikidōzan in turn held until his death in 1963. Rikidōzan's NWA International Heavyweight Championship design subsequently inspired the designs of All Japan Pro Wrestling 's PWF World Heavyweight Championship and Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship . In 1992, Thesz lent the original "Lou Thesz Belt" to the Union of Professional Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) to represent their Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship . Nobuhiko Takada and Super Vader were

2943-550: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship after the previous champion A.J. Styles . Carter scheduled an eight-man tournament to determine a new champion, that would begin on November 7. Seven of the eight men were former TNA World Heavyweight Champions including Jeff Hardy , Chris Sabin , Bobby Roode , James Storm , Kurt Angle , Austin Aries , and Samoa Joe . The eighth would be determined later in

3052-573: The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in February 1995. Severn held the belt continuously for four years, appearing on both wrestling and UFC events with the NWA World championship belt. Although Severn had attempted to go the "traveling champion" route done by former champions Thesz, Dory Funk, Jr. , Harley Race , and Terry Funk , the competition level was relatively minor due to the lack of strong NWA territories. It

3161-783: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (which it is most commonly known for), and eventually as the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE . Also in WWE, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem to represent the then- Undisputed WWF Championship after the former WCW Championship was unified with the then-WWF World Championship in 2001, and then again in tandem to represent the WWE World Heavyweight Championship after

3270-423: The ring . The role can vary according to disposition as a face authority figure tends to give what the fans want and does what is fair while a heel authority figures tend to run their shows out of their own self-interest. From its founding in 1963 to 1997, the WWE looked to a president as an authority figure. The president had booking power and controlled all wrestlers. However, in 1997 the commissioner replaced

3379-535: The vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as the guest referee at the event. The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until May 13, 2007, when NWA ended their five-year agreement with TNA, which had allowed the latter full control over both titles. NWA Executive Director Robert Trobich also stripped then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and then-NWA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D of their respective championships, ostensibly because Cage refused to defend

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3488-451: The "Domed Globe Belt") version of the championship belt debuted on July 20, 1973, having been first presented to Harley Race by then-NWA President Sam Muchnick . When Jim Crockett Promotions wrestler Ric Flair won the NWA World title in 1981, he traveled to other NWA territories and defended the belt. He would drop the belt and regain it, as the NWA board of directors decided. On more than one occasion, however, Flair lost and regained

3597-542: The "undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion". In early 2017 After TNA rebranded as Impact Wrestling, the name of its flagship show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship changed its name to the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to reflect the name changes of the company. At Slammiversary XV , GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron defeated Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley to unify

3706-547: The Big Gold Belt for a short time, until it became known as the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship . This title was recognized as the championship of a fictitious entity known as "WCW International", which served as a replacement for the NWA Board, until the title was unified with the main WCW title on June 23, 1994. Despite losing WCW as its flagship promotion, the NWA picked up new members and remained in existence as

3815-483: The February 1, 2018, episode of Impact! , the title became known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship and on March 13, 2021, it was unified with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , which was briefly sanctioned in 2021 as a separate title from the Impact World Championship. In January 2024, Impact Wrestling reverted back to

3924-498: The Impact World Championship, though still represented by both belts (with the white strap TNA belt being swapped out for the original black strap version shortly thereafter). In August 2021, after Christian Cage won the title, the TNA belt was retired once again. Prior to Hard to Kill (2024) in January 2024, the company reverted back to the TNA name. To reflect the change, TNA President Scott D’Amore presented Alex Shelley , who

4033-569: The June 7 episode Impact! , which ended in a double disqualification , therefore neither man advanced to the King of the Mountain match. The final qualification match was won by Christian Cage over Abyss on the June 14 episode of Impact! . 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

4142-496: The NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Flair took the NWA belt with him because WCW and Herd had not returned the $ 25,000 bond Flair had paid on the belt. After Flair's departure from WCW, the company had made a new, separate WCW World title belt. A match was held for the vacated WCW World Heavyweight Championship within two weeks of the departure, but no mention was made of the NWA title. Flair was stripped of

4251-698: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship (renamed the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship) and the NWA World Women's Championship , would be vacated in the months following the acquisition. On October 20, 2017, the NWA debuted the YouTube series, Ten Pounds of Gold , focused primarily around the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion at the time Tim Storm , chronicling his travels across the United States, and defenses of

4360-424: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from other NWA territories. That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships. On the card , Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match . That night, the onscreen graphic used to refer to

4469-607: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship by NWA's board of directors shortly after he signed with the WWF in September 1991; an NWA board had to be reconstituted, as most members had gone out of business or been bought out by JCP/WCW. Flair displayed the Big Gold Belt on WWF television, calling himself the "Real World's Heavyweight Champion". After winning the WWF Championship, Flair's "Real World's Heavyweight Champion" belt

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4578-630: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was later known simply as the Omaha version of the World Heavyweight Championship . The title was unified with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on September 7, 1963. The Boston NWA affiliate known as the Atlantic Athletic Commission (AAC) arranged a match between Killer Kowalski and Carpentier in 1958. Kowalski's victory created what was after known as

4687-480: The NWA World's Heavyweight Championship. The first design was only held by the very first NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, Orville Brown . This belt consisted of one metal plate with a picture frame at the center. It had gemstones of various sizes around the edges of the belt, with the center featuring larger stones. The belt was retired after Orville's accident, and it remains with the Brown family. The second design

4796-554: The NWA and became World Wide Wrestling Federation , now WWE), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ring of Honor (ROH), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and the now-defunct American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP, later called World Championship Wrestling , WCW), Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW, later Extreme Championship Wrestling), World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), and many other defunct wrestling promotions. In October 2017,

4905-518: The NWA announced a tournament, titled Reclaiming the Glory, to fill the title vacancy left after the end of the NWA's relationship with TNA . Sixteen men competed for the championship, with Adam Pearce , filling in for an injured Bryan Danielson , winning the belt by defeating Brent Albright on September 1, 2007, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Pearce was active in defending the championship but suffered from

5014-415: The NWA board began emerging in the summer of 1993 over a variety of issues, primarily a storyline by WCW that would have had the NWA title switch to Rick Rude . On September 1, 1993, WCW withdrew their membership from the NWA but kept the NWA title belt which they owned. A court battle decided that WCW could not continue to use the letters "NWA" to describe or promote the belt, but ruled that WCW did possess

5123-513: The NWA governing body was purchased by Billy Corgan and gradually evolved into a stand alone wrestling promotion with the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship as its premier title. With many territorial promotions appearing across the United States, the NWA was formed in 1948 as a professional wrestling governing body. The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was created that same year. Like franchises, these territories had

5232-653: The NWA title. Despite this blow to the organization, the NWA held another tournament three months later in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, hosted by Coralluzzo and Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) owner Jim Cornette . Chris Candido won this tournament and the title was recognized and defended in promotions such as SMW and the United States Wrestling Association . Candido held the belt for a few months before dropping it to Dan Severn of

5341-415: The NWA underwent another major change. In August 2012, International Wrestling Corp, LLC, a holding company run by Houston-based attorney and wrestling promoter R. Bruce Tharpe, sued the NWA, two of its recent Executive Directors (Robert Trobich and David Baucom) and its then-parent company, Pro Wrestling Organization LLC, claiming insurance fraud regarding the NWA's liability insurance policy. A settlement

5450-547: The NWA, Carpentier's manager, wrestling promoter Eddie Quinn , left the organization in August making Carpentier unavailable to the NWA. The organization dealt with the situation by announcing 71 days after Carpentier's win in Chicago that it did not recognize Carpentier's win and had never recognized it . Quinn started promoting Carpentier as the true NWA world champion based on the match with Thesz. In 1958, Quinn started shopping Carpentier around to promoters interested in leaving

5559-432: The NWA, but Turner slowly phased out the NWA name. The NWA organization existed only on paper at this point; on television, it was portrayed that, by early 1991, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship had become the WCW World Heavyweight Championship . Due to a falling out with WCW Executive Vice-President Jim Herd , WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair was fired from WCW on July 1, 1991, while still being recognized as

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5668-613: The NWA. A victory over Carpentier could give a local champion a credible claim to the world championship of wrestling. Verne Gagne, who had been trying to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion for some time, defeated Carpentier in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 9, 1958. This was recognized as a title change by NWA affiliate promotions in the state – these promotions would later evolve into the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1960. This disputed Nebraska version of

5777-554: The October 15, 2019 episode of Powerrr , it was announced that the NWA would be holding a pay-per-view (PPV) called Into the Fire on December 14, 2019. This would be the first PPV event produced exclusively by the NWA without another promotion or production company’s involvement. At the event, NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis defeated James Storm to remain the champion. There have been six belt designs used to represent

5886-523: The TNA and original GFW Global Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the unification of both titles. At Destination X 2017 , the GFW Global Championship belt, with an updated color scheme and Impact logos on the side plates, became the sole belt used. Following the departure of Jeff Jarrett from the promotion, the company reverted to the Impact Wrestling name and the title belt was updated with an Impact name plate to reflect

5995-492: The TNA name, thus renaming the title as TNA World Championship. TNA Wrestling was formed as NWA: Total Nonstop Action in May 2002. 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. On June 19, 2002, NWA-TNA held its first show;

6104-632: The WWF. Turner's company still maintained its WCW World Championship, thus having two World Heavyweight titles present in the same promotion. The tournament was won by Japanese wrestler Masahiro Chono . From 1992 to 1993, the NWA belt was defended in Japan and on WCW television. Flair returned to WCW and regained the NWA belt from Barry Windham in July 1993; that same year, WCW recognized the Ric Flair- Tatsumi Fujinami NWA title changes from 1991. Disputes between WCW management and

6213-933: The World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship in 2013. The Big Gold Belt was eventually retired in August 2014. The sixth design was a customized belt commissioned for Dan Severn during his first reign as NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, to celebrate the NWA's 50th anniversary. The NWA currently recognizes 102 individual World's Heavyweight Championship reigns. Professional wrestling authority figures#Management Director This list brings together authority figures —people who hold on-screen power —in professional wrestling promotions or brands within North America. The North American wrestling industry portrays authority figures as responsible for making matches, providing rules and generally keeping law and order both in and outside

6322-486: The actual structure in WWE, Inc. and its predecessors. After the All In wrestling event in 2018, Ring of Honor wrestlers Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks partnered with Shahid Khan and Tony Khan , the owners of Fulham F.C. and Jacksonville Jaguars , to form All Elite Wrestling on January 1, 2019. The director of authority operated as the on-screen authority-figure for the company. TNA Wrestling also maintained

6431-539: The agreement ended, with TNA creating its own World and Tag Team championships. During this agreement, TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett would hold the title the most often with six reigns, followed by A.J. Styles with three, and lastly Ron Killings and Christian Cage with two reigns each. During the TNA years, a title change unauthorized by the NWA took place on an International Wrestling Association event in Puerto Rico, where Ray González pinned Jarrett to win

6540-484: The belt featured a modified version of the older Canadian Red Ensign rather than the official Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf , which had been adopted in 1965. The belt originally had a red suede/velvet strap along with a nameplate. The nameplate was only used once, by Jack Brisco , before it was removed from the design. The red leather strap was replaced with a black laced leather strap soon into Brisco's reign due to

6649-609: The belt without the official sanctioning of the NWA. In most cases (such as the case of Jack Veneno 's championship victory), these switches continue to be ignored by the NWA. However, since 2015, the NWA has occasionally recognized the unauthorized Flair-Race switches that had occurred in March 1984 in New Zealand and Singapore. By early 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) controlled many NWA territories and limited championship matches to performers under contract with JCP thus making

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6758-542: The booking power in WWE on both the Raw and SmackDown brands until the board of directors stripped him of his power and named John Laurinaitis the interim general manager of Raw. From 1996 onwards, the corporate roles of Vince McMahon and his wife Linda were gradually acknowledged in WWF programmes and were subsequently included in storylines. The following list gives the development of corporate offices as portrayed in storylines and should not be confused with their counterparts in

6867-411: The center. The second side plate on each side is gold with TNA logo in the center. The third side plate on the right side features the Anthem logo in gold and red. Overall, there have been 59 reigns shared among 34 wrestlers. 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. Angle also holds

6976-462: The champion would make in different regions. On June 14, 1957, in Chicago, Thesz defended the world title against Canadian wrestler Édouard Carpentier in a two out of three falls match . Thesz and Carpentier split the first two falls. In the third fall, Thesz was disqualified by referee Ed Whalen who raised Carpentier's hand in victory. The NWA later voided the title change based on the disqualification. Thesz defeated Carpentier by disqualification in

7085-466: The champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA champions. Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the World Heavyweight Championship. During subsequent TV tapings for the next two episodes of Impact! , TNA did not acknowledge the NWA ending their agreement with TNA but gave a storyline explanation as to why a new championship was created. Management Director Jim Cornette , TNA's on-screen authority figure at

7194-433: The championship at TNA's Slammiversary on June 17, 2007. This match type involves five participants racing to gain a pinfall or submission to become eligible to hang a championship belt to win. On May 15, 2007, Jeremy Borash unveiled the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online video podcast TNA Today . The five participants for the King of the Mountain match were determined in

7303-442: The championship before being stripped of the title later on the same event. While the González title change was initially ignored by both the NWA and TNA, beginning in 2015, the NWA has occasionally recognized González as a former NWA champion. This makes González the first Caribbean wrestler to be recognized as NWA World champion (the reigns of Caribbean wrestlers Jack Veneno and Carlos Colón remain unrecognized). On May 22, 2007,

7412-416: The championship. Continuing to operate as a governing body, Billy Corgan's NWA worked collaboratively with various promotions to sanction Storm's championship matches. On December 9, 2017, Nick Aldis won the championship from Storm on a Combat Zone Wrestling show. Since the championship change, Ten Pounds of Gold focused on "The Aldis Crusade", a series of 20 title defenses over the course of 60 days in

7521-416: The championships. The TNA title was deactivated, and the Impact World Championship was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship. As Impact Wrestling returned to its original name, TNA Wrestling, the world title also reverted back to its original name. On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact! , the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered

7630-441: The change. A new title design was introduced at Impact Wrestling's Redemption on April 22, 2018. The gold center plate has the Impact logo with "World Champion" inscribed below the logo. An owl sits above the Impact logo, representing Impact's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment . On each side of the center plate is a group of four smaller gold plates, with the inner side plates featuring separate corresponding halves of

7739-405: The company. Despite the name, the National Wrestling Alliance had no direct relationship with the committee. During its existence, TNA controlled the booking of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and treated it as its foremost title. The committee consisted of: Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions and launched World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988. The company went through

7848-484: The conclusion of his match, with the championship receiving official recognition from ROH shortly after. On October 25, 2008, Blue Demon Jr. became the first Mexican professional wrestler, as well as first masked luchador , to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship when he defeated champion Adam Pearce in Mexico City. In early-to-mid-2012, NWA champion Colt Cabana and Adam Pearce began facing each other in

7957-404: The credibility of the world title. The NWA's board of directors , composed mostly of territory owners, decided when the title changed hands via a vote. By the late 1950s, however, the system began to break down. As Lou Thesz continued to hold the title, other popular wrestlers such as Verne Gagne became frustrated over the lack of change. There were also disputes over the number of appearances

8066-418: The entire company, he removed Flair from control of Raw, relinquished his own position and appointed separate general managers to control the different brands. On July 18, 2011, Triple H came to Raw and told Vince McMahon that the board of directors (kayfabe) revoked his "day-to-day operation power" and named him to manage it instead. After that, Triple H became the WWE's chief operating officer, who had

8175-457: The final match was scheduled for October 27, 2012, in Melbourne, Australia, at an NWA Warzone Wrestling event. Pearce wanted the NWA to sanction the match as a world title match, as they had done earlier. The NWA, however, refused to do this and did not want Pearce and Cabana to go forward with the match. They did anyway, with Cabana winning the match. Pearce and Cabana both broke kayfabe after

8284-506: The first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship , which traces its lineage to the title first awarded to George Hackenschmidt in 1905. This effectively makes it the oldest surviving wrestling championship in the world. The title began as a governing body's world championship and has been competed for in multiple major promotions around the world, including the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (which seceded from

8393-601: The match, with Pearce saying that Cabana was the rightful champion and Cabana saying that he did not want the title as it was about the past and he was about the future. Pearce declared he did not want the title either and left it in the ring as the two exited the arena. On May 1, 2017, Billy Corgan 's company, Lightning One, Inc., purchased the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks, and championships. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017. At that point, all existing NWA affiliation agreements were ended and all NWA championships, except

8502-485: The material lacking durability. The original Domed Globe Belt was retired in 1986; Ric Flair retained possession of the original belt. It is currently located at WWE 's Connecticut headquarters . This design was revived in 1994 with a new belt that continues to represent the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship presently. In 2021, the NWA replaced the Australian flag side plate with a United Kingdom flag side plate, at

8611-514: The move to AXS TV. At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose to unify the two championships. Following this, the 2020 red shaded Impact belt and the white strapped TNA belt were used jointly to represent the unified world championship; the unified title was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to being called

8720-403: The night in a gauntlet match, which was eventually won by Magnus last eliminating Kazarian and Sting . Match stipulations for the tournament were determined by spinning the "Wheel of Dixie"; options included a Falls Count Anywhere match , a Bull Rope match , a Submission match , a Ladder match , a Full Metal Mayhem match , a Coalminer's Glove match , a Tables match , a Dixieland match ,

8829-460: The only wrestlers to hold the belt in UWFi, as Thesz withdrew from UWFi in 1995 due to his disagreement over the company co-promoting with New Japan Pro-Wrestling , taking the belt with him. The third design is sometimes referred to as the "Crown Belt". It had a prominent royal crown at its top, a globe underneath it, and the letters "NWA" horizontally across the center behind two wrestlers. The design

8938-455: The option of NWA membership. Member promotions had to recognize the NWA World Heavyweight Champion as world champion while retaining the ability to promote their own top championships. Every year, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion would travel to each territory and defend the title against the territories' top contender or champion. The purpose of the NWA world champion was to make the top wrestlers of each territory look good, while still upholding

9047-492: The precursor to the WWWF, seceded from the NWA for a variety of reasons including the selection of the NWA World Heavyweight Champion and the number of dates wrestled by the champion in the promotion. Ostensibly, the dispute was over Buddy Rogers losing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Lou Thesz in one fall instead of a best-of-three; the format in which NWA World Heavyweight Championship matches were traditionally decided at

9156-551: The president, with Sgt. Slaughter serving as the first WWE commissioner. During the Attitude Era (1997–2002), not only the commissioner, but also Vince McMahon (through his position as WWE chairman under his evil character Mr. McMahon ) had booking power. McMahon usually used his power in order to haze his kayfabe nemesis, Stone Cold Steve Austin . When Shawn Michaels served as commissioner, he could overrule McMahon, but he exercised his booking power only sporadically and

9265-440: The record for the most reigns, at six. Josh Alexander 's first reign is the shortest at three minutes while his second reign is the longest at 335 days. Tessa Blanchard is the only woman to ever win the world title. The title has been vacated seven different times. Nic Nemeth is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated defending champion Moose , Josh Alexander , Steve Maclin , Frankie Kazarian , and Joe Hendry in

9374-581: The request of then-champion Nick Aldis . The Mexican-based lower weight classes Domed Globe championship belts featured the flag of Mexico on their main plates instead of the U.S. flag. From 1995 to 1997, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship also had a Domed Globe design, as part of the J-Crown , with the U.S. flag in front; briefly during the 2010s, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship once again had

9483-518: The same problems that had plagued other champions in the post-1980s NWA: a lack of stable promotions within the NWA made it difficult to have a "traveling champion", so most of Pearce's defenses took place in the NWA Pro promotion owned by David Marquez and John Rivera. On June 7, 2008, at the Ring of Honor (ROH) event, Respect is Earned II , Pearce revealed the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt at

9592-577: The spring of 2018 and concluding with a title defense against Colt Cabana in Wenzhou, China. Ten Pounds of Gold , together with the Being The Elite web series produced by The Young Bucks , then focused on the build towards a championship match between Aldis and Cody as part of the All In supercard event on September 1, 2018, where Cody would win the match and the championship. Ten Pounds of Gold continued to cover subsequent defenses at

9701-420: The time, decided that "that due to TNA's growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts". At the first episode, broadcast on tape delay on May 17 Angle introduced himself as the "new TNA World Heavyweight Champion". but later on, Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA championship due to the controversial finish of the match at Sacrifice. and scheduled a King of the Mountain match for

9810-508: The time. This one fall match was sanctioned by NWA promoters, despite objections from CWC executives, who held majority control over the NWA board of directors at the time. Following Lou Thesz's World Heavyweight Championship win, CWC seceded from the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Rogers was then recognized as the first WWWF World Heavyweight Champion . The "Ten Pounds of Gold" (also known as

9919-455: The title exclusive to the promotion. The " Big Gold Belt " version of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt debuted on February 14, 1986, at Battle of the Belts II, an event co-promoted by Championship Wrestling from Florida and JCP. At the event, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair successfully defended the title against Barry Windham . It was during this time that JCP made

10028-454: The title has been known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship , with the latter title being officially retired. At Rebellion , Moose appeared with the old TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt (its 3rd design from 2011 to 2017, later modified with a white strap) and declared himself the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Hernandez and Michael Elgin in

10137-424: The title picture became slightly more competitive. The champions nonetheless remained wrestlers from independent promotions, regardless of whether they were from North America (Severn, Mike Rapada , Sabu ), Asia (Ogawa, Shinya Hashimoto ), or Europe ( Gary Steele ). In June 2002, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett formed NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA; was known as Impact Wrestling 2017-2024). The Jarretts worked out

10246-611: The title took the GFW Global Championship name and kept the former TNA lineage. On October 23, 2017, the GFW name was dropped, and the company name reverted to Impact Wrestling when the company severed ties with Jeff Jarrett , and he took the GFW name with him. However, Impact Wrestling kept the Global Championship name for their championship and the title was then called the Impact Global Championship. On

10355-664: The titles, with the GFW Global Championship being dropped and the Impact World Heavyweight Championship changing its name to the Unified GFW World Championship as Impact Wrestling began rebranding once again as GFW. In September 2017, GFW reverted their branding to Impact Wrestling, the championship then became known as the Impact Global Championship. Since the February 1, 2018 episode of Impact! ,

10464-422: The vacant title by defeating Barry Windham on Monday Night Raw . The NWA's deal with the WWF never accomplished its intended purpose of reestablishing the NWA as a major force in wrestling and McMahon ended it in less than a year. The NWA belt went back to being defended on the independent circuit and in the remaining NWA territories. In 1999, Severn lost the title to former Olympic judoka Naoya Ogawa , and

10573-819: The words "Heavyweight Champion" engraved in silver. On each side of the center plate was a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two featured separate corresponding halves of a globe, on either side of the TNA logo side plate. This belt—modified with a white strap—returned in April 2020 after Moose declared himself as " TNA World Heavyweight Champion " following defeating several past TNA wrestlers, and with then-reigning Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard being absent due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Moose's title would remain unrecognized until February 2021, when it became officially sanctioned and recognized by Impact executive vice president Scott D'Amore . Following Slammiversary XV , both

10682-559: Was Kurt Angle , who also holds the record for the most reigns at six. When TNA changed its name and became Impact Wrestling in March 2017, the title was renamed soon after to reflect the change. After Impact Wrestling rebranded to Global Force Wrestling (GFW) later that year, the title was unified with the original GFW Global Championship at Slammiversary XV and became the Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship. Following Destination X ,

10791-406: Was dropped. WCW, which had subsequently filed a lawsuit against the WWF to prevent them from using the Big Gold Belt on television, eventually dropped the action because the belt was returned to WCW in July 1992. In August 1992, the NWA board authorized WCW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling to hold a tournament to decide a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion using the Big Gold Belt, now returned to WCW by

10900-451: Was during this time, Severn had a customized NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt made exclusively for him. Trying to get back in the national spotlight, the NWA made a deal in 1997 with Vincent K. McMahon to appear on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) television. In 1998, NWA World champion Dan Severn became part of Jim Cornette's NWA faction . Also part of Cornette's NWA faction was NWA North American Champion Jeff Jarrett , who won

11009-931: Was later used to represent the NWA United National Championship (which later became part of the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship), the Japanese version of the NWA North American Tag Team Championship , the championships of Blue Demon Jr. 's NWA Mexico territory, the Tenryu Project 's United National Tag Team Championship , and the current version of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship . The fourth design

11118-455: Was made in 1973 by an unidentified jeweler in Mexico – similar belts were made for the NWA's Mexican-based World Light Heavyweight , Middleweight and Welterweight titles. The Domed Globe NWA World Heavyweight title featured the flag of the United States on its main plate, as well as those of Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Japan on its side plates. The second side plate on the left side of

11227-498: Was negotiated that transferred the rights to the NWA from Pro Wrestling Organization LLC to International Wrestling Corp, LLC. After 64 years, the new organization moved from a membership model to a licensing model, licensing the NWA brand name to wrestling promotions which caused many promotions to immediately cut ties with the NWA, including some of the largest remaining NWA affiliated promotions. With both Cabana and Pearce even at three victories in their “Seven Levels of Hate” series,

11336-414: Was placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon was wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars were engraved on the ribbon when it passed over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passed over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" were printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate there was TNA logo. Four smaller side plates had an imprint of

11445-430: Was replaced by the third design of the championship belt at the March 14, 2011 tapings of the March 17 episode of Impact! , introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting. The design featured seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The center plate had faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges, similar to that of the Big Gold Belt . Over the center plate was a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it

11554-410: Was stripped of the NWA title. Ken Shamrock was then declared the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion after winning a Gauntlet for the Gold battle royal. In 2004, NWA-TNA withdrew from the NWA, dropping the NWA from their promotion name and becoming known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). However, TNA retained the rights to use the NWA World Heavyweight and Tag Team titles until May 13, 2007, when

11663-445: Was the last champion under the Impact name with a new belt. The new belt has 5 gold plates. The center plate added more height with the top and bottom each pointed like a V-shape with the sides having various shapes. In the center plate, features World on top, the TNA logo over a gold and red globe in center and Champion at the bottom. The first side plate next to the center on each side features World Champion in smaller print and globe in

11772-514: Was won by Shane Douglas . Due to a dispute between NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo and ECW owner Tod Gordon , after the match, Douglas threw the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt down and picked up the ECW Heavyweight Championship belt, proclaiming himself ECW World champion. Almost immediately thereafter ECW withdrew from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling , with Coralluzzo stripping Douglas of

11881-462: Was working with an ironclad contract where he could not be fired. When Mick Foley acquired the position, he took full reign until he was fired from the position. Upon splitting WWE into two separate brands in the WWE brand extension of 2002, on-screen co-owners Vince McMahon and Ric Flair proceeded to draft WWE wrestlers into two separate rosters. Flair took ownership of Raw while McMahon controlled SmackDown . After McMahon regained control of

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