# DEFY World Championship

The DEFY World Championship is a men's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion DEFY Wrestling, being sanctioned as the promotion's top championship. There have been a total of ten reigns shared between eight different champions. The current champion is Clark Connors who is in his first reign.

## Title history

There have been a total of 10 reigns shared between 8 different champions. Davey Richards was the inaugural champion who also holds the record for the shortest reign with eight days. Randy Myers had the longest reign at 1,009 days, however without scoring any defenses due to the COVID pandemic impact. Swerve Strickland holds the record for most reigns with three and also for the most cumulated successful defenses with nine. The current champion is Clark Connors who is in his first reign. He defeated Starboy Charlie in a Super 8XGP Tournament final to win the vacant title at Afternath.
Key :
| No. | Overall reign number |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| <1 | Reign lasted less than a day |
| + | Current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Championship change | Championship change | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. |
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | Notes | Ref. |
| 1 | Davey Richards | June 30, 2017 | DEFY5 Gigantic | Seattle, WA | 1 | 8 | 0 | Defeated Shane Strickland in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | Shane Strickland | July 8, 2017 | CZW Evilution | Voorhees, NJ | 1 | 279 | 5 | This was a four-way winner takes all match also disputed for Strickland's CZW World Heavyweight Championship which also involved Joe Gacy and Lio Rush. | |
| 3 | Austin Aries | April 13, 2018 | DEFY Vibes | Seattle, WA | 1 | 98 | 1 | This was a winner takes all match also disputed for Aries' Impact World Championship. | |
| 4 | Shane Strickland | July 20, 2018 | DEFY Swerve Vs. Aries | Portland, OR | 2 | 147 | 3 | | |
| 5 | Artemis Spencer | December 14, 2018 | DEFY On Edge | Seattle, WA | 1 | 252 | 8 | | |
| 6 | Schaff | August 23, 2019 | DEFY Defyance Forever | Tacoma, WA | 1 | 182 | 4 | | |
| 7 | Randy Myers | February 21, 2020 | DEFY Kings Of Crash | Seattle, WA | 1 | 1,009 | 0 | | |
| — | Christopher Daniels (Interim) | December 18, 2021 | DEFY Dark Horse | Seattle, WA | — | 294 | 6 | Daniels defeated Brody King to become the interim champion. | |
| — | Swerve Strickland (Interim) | October 8, 2022 | DEFY City Of Thorns | Portland, OR | — | 49 | 0 | | |
| 8 | Swerve Strickland | November 26, 2022 | DEFY Fightwave | Seattle, WA | 3 | 133 | 1 | This was a title unification match in which Strickland wrestled as the interim champion. The bout was a six-way ladder match which also involved Artemis Spencer, Christopher Daniels, Cody Chhun and Schaff. Strickland was previously known as Shane Stricklad. | |
| 9 | Nick Wayne | April 8, 2023 | DEFY The Realest | Seattle, WA | 1 | 56 | 2 | | |
| 9 | Kenta | June 3, 2023 | DEFY Your Nightmare | Seattle, WA | 1 | 626 | 10 | | |
| 10 | Ricky Starks | February 7, 2025 | DEFY Hundredth | Seattle, WA | 1 | 21 | 0 | | |
| — | Vacated | February 28, 2025 | — | — | — | — | — | Starks vacated the title after signing with WWE. | |
| 11 | Clark Connors | March 15, 2025 | DEFY Afternath | Seattle, WA | 1 | 1+ | 0 | Defeated Starboy Charlie in a Super 8XGP Tournament final to win the vacant title. | |

### Combined reigns

As of March 16, 2025.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
| 1 | Randy Myers | 1 | 0 | 1,009 |
| 2 | Kenta | 1 | 10 | 616 |
| 3 | Swerve Strickland | 3 | 9 | 559 |
| 4 | Artemis Spencer | 1 | 8 | 252 |
| 5 | Schaff | 1 | 4 | 182 |
| 6 | Austin Aries | 1 | 1 | 98 |
| 7 | Nick Wayne | 1 | 2 | 56 |
| 8 | Ricky Starks | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| 9 | Davey Richards | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| 10 | Clark Connors † | 1 | 0 | 1+ |