ROH World Television Championship The ROH World Television Championship is a professional wrestling world television championship owned by the United States – based Ring of Honor ( ROH ) promotion . It is currently the third ranked championship in ROH . With the introduction of the ROH World Television Championship , the television type championship returned to national exposure . There has been a total of nine reigns shared between eight champions . The first champion was crowned on March 5 , 2010 , when Eddie Edwards defeated Davey Richards in the finals of a tournament . History . The creation of the ROH World Television Championship was announced via ROH ' s official website on January 20 , 2010 . An eight - man single elimination tournament was then planned to determine the inaugural champion . The tournament was to start on February 4 and conclude on February 6 , 2010 at The Arena in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania at the tapings of ROH ' s television program " Ring of Honor Wrestling " . Regarding the new championship addition , ROH President Cary Silkin said , " We ’ ve been talking about adding a secondary championship for some time . Not only will this give the athletes of Ring of Honor another tremendous goal to work towards , it will also give our great partner , HDNet , a championship that is sure to be defended on the television program . We ’ re happy to publicly give thanks to HDNet for giving us the chance to add this title to the television show . . . " . It is ROH ' s second secondary singles championship in their history . The ROH Pure Championship was used from February 14 , 2004 to August 12 , 2006 , prior its unification with the ROH World Championship . After the championship announcement , wrestling columnist James Caldwell gave his comments : " I like the idea . It gives mid - card wrestlers on ROH ' s roster something to fight for in the context of trying to win a wrestling match to " move up the company ladder . " Caldwell further remarked that " ROH bringing back the TV Title to national TV is consistent with ROH ' s current marketing under Jim Cornette to " re - capture an old - school flavor " to their product . " After the " Ring of Honor Wrestling " show was cancelled in March 2011 , the title became inactive . Although Daniels stopped defending it , he still carried the belt with him as part of his villainous character . With the sale of ROH to the Sinclair Broadcast Group and a new television show scheduled to air in September , ROH reinstated the title for June ' s Best in The World event . Tournament . The tournament was scheduled to span over a two - day weekend , starting on February 5 and ending on February 6 at events recorded for later broadcast on " Ring of Honor Wrestling " . However , due to severe weather conditions in the Philadelphia area , the second day of taping was canceled . It was not until almost a month later , on March 5 , that ROH held the second recorded event , which closed out the tournament . The first four seeds of eight in the tournament were announced on January 22 , 2010 : Rhett Titus ( 8 ) , El Generico ( 7 ) , Eddie Edwards ( 6 ) , and Delirious ( 5 ) . The other four seeds were announced on January 26 , 2010 : Kevin Steen ( 1 ) , Kenny King ( 2 ) , Colt Cabana ( 3 ) , and Davey Richards ( 4 ) . The first round was determined at the first event on February 5 , with Steen , King , Richards , and Edwards all advancing to round two . On March 5 , Edwards and Richards both advanced to the finals , where Edwards defeat Richards to be crowned the first ROH World Television Champion . The matches were scheduled to span over six episodes of " Ring of Honor Wrestling " . The first match from round one that aired pitted Steen against Titus , which Steen won , on the March 8 episode . On the same episode , King versus El Generico was featured , with King advancing . Cabana versus Edwards was the third match from round one to air , when it was broadcast on the March 15 episode . Richards defeated Delirious in the final match from round one , which aired later in the same episode . The first match from round two , Steen versus Edwards , was featured on the April 12 episode , in which Edwards advanced to the finals . On the April 19 episode , Richards defeated King to advance to the finals . On the April 26 episode , Edwards defeated Richards in the finals of the tournament to become the first ROH World Television Champion . Tournament . Belt designs . The championship belt was introduced on March 5 , 2010 , when it was given to the newly crowned inaugural champion Eddie Edwards . The physical championship belt was designed by Troy Lowe of Universal Championship Belts . The title ' s base is a black leather strap that is covered with four small silver plates . The center of the title has one large silver plate . All plates have an inner blue covering . The two small outer plates have a caricature of the earth and a satellite in orbit . The middle plates have figures resembling a cameraman filming a television production . Underneath each figure , lies the ROH logo and the words " Ring of Honor Wrestling " . The central plate has the engravings of the ROH logo as well as the statement " World Television Wrestling Champion " hovering above the backdrop of a city , with a television lying on top of a globe with an overhead shot of a wrestling ring between them in front of the skyline . The design was changed again in November 2012 to its current design during the reign of Adam Cole . Champions . Overall , there has been nine reigns by eight wrestlers . The inaugural champion was Eddie Edwards , who defeated Davey Richards in the finals of an eight - man tournament on March 5 , 2010 . The current champion is Jay Lethal who is in his second reign . He defeated Tommaso Ciampa on April 4 , 2014 in Westwego , Louisiana during the Supercard of Honor VIII .