TNA World Heavyweight Championship The TNA World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ) . It is currently the highest ranked championship in TNA and is primarily defended in TNA ' s heavyweight division . 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 . 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 thirty reigns among sixteen different wrestlers . Current champion . Lashley is the current champion in his fourth reign . He defeated former champion Eddie Edwards on January 8 , 2017 on " Impact Wrestling " in Orlando , Florida . History . The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion formed 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 ; a weekly pay - per - view ( PPV ) event . The main event of the telecast was a twenty - man Gauntlet for the Gold match in which twenty men trying to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate them , until there were two men left who wrestle a standard match to become the first ever TNA - era NWA World Heavyweight Champion . Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win the vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as Special Guest Referee at the event . Creation . The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until the morning of May 13 , 2007 . 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 . 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 . The alleged motivation behind these actions was because Cage refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from NWA territories . 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 . 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 . 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 . However , the ring announcer s for the encounters proclaimed the matches as being strictly for the " World Heavyweight Championship " or the " World Tag Team Championship " . Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the " World Heavyweight Championship " . 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 . 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 " . 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 " ; thereby not acknowledging the NWA ending their agreement with TNA and giving a storyline explanation as to why the championship was created . Later on during the broadcast , Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship due to a controversial finish to the match at Sacrifice . 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 . 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 " . 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 ! " . On 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 the June 7 episode " Impact ! " , which ended in a double disqualification ; 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 the " undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion " . Belt design . During the championship ' s five - year history , it has had five designs . The original belt , unveiled in May 2007 , had on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended . The word " World " 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 , was TNA ' s logo . Four smaller side plates had an imprint of a globe centered with TNA ' s logo at the top and bottom of each . At each end of the belt was a small plate that covered the belt snaps with TNA ' s logo engraved on each . At the November 8 , 2010 , tapings of the November 11 edition of " Impact ! " , TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt , which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the " Immortal championship " . The new design was 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 are four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the belt , shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates . The Immortal belt was replaced by the third design of the belt at the March 14 , 2011 , tapings of the March 17 edition of " Impact ! " , introduced by the reigning champion at the time , Sting . 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 halves of a globe . On the October 18 , 2012 , episode of " Impact Wrestling " , then - new TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy introduced the fifth design of the title belt , a modified version of his custom " Immortal " belt , this time with a black strap and an omega symbol on it ( a reference to his OMEGA promotion ) . Unlike the Immortal days , he continued carrying the standard TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt along with his custom belt . Both versions of the " Immortal " belt were designed by Hardy himself . Reigns . 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 . 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 1 day . Angle holds the record for the most reigns at six , and is the current champion . He defeated former champion Lashley during the Impact Wrestling tapings on January 31 , 2015 in London , England ( will air March 20 ) .