Claim: Kurt Angle wrestles.

The Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Impact Wrestling -LRB- formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , TNA -RRB- promotion . From June 2002 to May 2007 , TNA used the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as their primary championship due to an agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance -LRB- NWA -RRB- . On May 13 , 2007 , the NWA abruptly ended the arrangement and retrieved control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . On the same night , TNA were set to host their annual Sacrifice pay-per-view event , in which the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was to be defended by then-champion Christian Cage against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match . Angle won the match and on the following episode of TNA 's television program Impact ! on May 17 , was declared the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion . He was stripped of the championship later in the program , with Management Director Jim Cornette citing a problematic finish to the title match . The ownership of the championship was decided on June 17 , 2007 at TNA 's Slammiversary event in a King of the Mountain match involving Angle and Cage along with A.J. Styles , Chris Harris and Samoa Joe , which Angle won .   Being a professional wrestling championship , the title is won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline . All title changes have occurred at Impact Wrestling-promoted events ; reigns that occurred on Impact Wrestling usually air on tape delay and as such are listed with the day the tapings occurred , rather than the air date . Angle holds the record for most reigns , with six . At days , Bobby Roode 's 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 one day . The title is currently held by Lashley . Overall , there have been 39 reigns shared among 20 wrestlers , with four Vacant .