Impact X Division Championship
The Impact X Division Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by Impact Wrestling. It debuted on June 19, 2002, at the taping of then-TNA's second weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event. The current champion is Ace Austin, who is in his third reign. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a predetermined match. There have been 90 reigns among 46 wrestlers. History. X Division. The TNA X Division was established on June 19, 2002 at Total Nonstop Action's first weekly PPV event with a  Six Man Tag Team match resulting in Jimmy Yang, Jorge Estrada, and Sonny Siaki—collectively known as The Flying Elvises—defeating A.J. Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki. Later that day at the taping of the next weekly PPV event, TNA introduced the X Division Championship—then known as the X Championship—to showcase the division more prominently. The division is described as wrestling reinvented, as it takes traditional wrestling and mixes it with the fast-paced, high–risk style of wrestling incorporated in cruiserweight divisions and lucha libre. The division was until 2011 promoted under the motto ""It is  not about weight limits, it is about no limits"" by commentator Mike Tenay. On the August 11, 2011, edition of TNA's primary television program, "Impact Wrestling", TNA authority figure Eric Bischoff announced that from that point onwards the X Division would have a weight limit of . Following Hulk Hogan becoming the new on-screen General Manager in March 2012, the weight limit was ignored on June 10, 2012, at Slammiversary when the Samoa Joe was allowed to challenge for the belt. In October 2012, the weight limit was officially repealed when Rob Van Dam challenged for, and eventually won , the title at Bound for Glory. In March 2013, the X Division was given a new set of rules, which meant all matches were wrestled in Triple Threat format, and a new weight limit of 230 lbs. This proved to be extremely unpopular with fans, and the rules and weight limit were repealed once again in August of that year. Speciality matches. The Total Nonstop Action X Division has multiple styles of match types used to showcase the talent within the division and to defend the TNA X Division Championship in more marketable matches. Three of the matches used in  TNA are the Ultimate X match, The Steel Asylum, and the Xscape match. Creation. The championship was created and debuted before the main event at the taping of TNA's second weekly PPV event on June 19, 2002; the event aired on June 26, 2002. Later, A.J. Styles defeated Low Ki, Jerry Lynn, and Psicosis in a Four Way Double Elimination match to be crowned the inaugural champion; this match was announced as being for the NWA X Championship on the onscreen graphic while the ring announcer stated it was for the "NWA–TNA X Championship". Afterwards, the title was  renamed the NWA–TNA X Division Championship and then shortened to just the TNA X Division Championship. This is the oldest title in TNA. Option C. Option C is a concept in which the current X Division Champion may voluntarily vacate the championship in exchange for a World Heavyweight Championship match. It began in June 2012 when then-champion Austin Aries said that he was not satisfied with being just the X Division Champion, which led to then-General Manager Hulk Hogan offering him a match for the World Heavyweight Championship, but only if he first vacated the X Division  Championship. Aries agreed to Hogan's terms, on the condition that future X Division Champions be given the same opportunity. Unifications and outside defenses. In July 2002, the X Division Champion AJ Styles defended the title against Adam Jacobs and David Young at Ring of Honor's Crowning a Champion, the first defense outside TNA. In May 2003, before the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling All-Stars' (WWA) foreclosure, then NWA–TNA X Division champion Chris Sabin defeated WWA International Cruiserweight Champion Jerry Lynn, Frankie Kazarian, and Johnny Swinger in a Four Corners championship unification match to unify the X  Division Championship with the WWA International Cruiserweight Championship. In Winter 2004, Petey Williams defended the title in various IWA-Mid South events. During Christopher Daniels' first reign in mid-2005, he defended the X Division Championship at several Pro Wrestling Guerrilla shows. The first defense happened at All Star Weekend - Night One on April 1 against Alex Shelley, while the second occurred at All Star Weekend – Night Two on April 2 against Chris Hero; Daniels won both encounters retaining the championship. At Jason Takes PWG on May 13, Daniels fought A.J. Styles for the X Division Championship and Styles' PWG Championship  to a one-hour time-limit draw. Daniels successfully defended the X Division Title two more times in PWG; once at Guitarmageddon on June 11 against El Generico, while once at The 2nd Annual PWG Bicentennial Birthday Extravaganza - Night One on July 9 against fellow TNA wrestler Chris Sabin. In September 2005 at TNA's Unbreakable PPV event, the TNA X Division Championship was defended in the main event for the first time at a monthly PPV event; then-champion Christopher Daniels defended the championship against A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe. The title was once again defended in the main  event of a monthly event at TNA's August 2007 Hard Justice PPV event, where Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe to win the TNA X Division and the TNA World Tag Team Championship and retain the TNA World Heavyweight and IGF's version of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This win made Angle the only in the history of TNA to hold every active championship at the same time; TNA World, X Division, and World Tag Team. On March 4, 2014, The title was defended in Japan as part of - a supershow event promoted by Wrestle-1 in partnership with TNA  - where the title was won by Wrestle-1 star Seiya Sanada. On March 22, Sanada defended and retained the title on a Wrestle-1 show. Four Women have unsuccessfully challenged for the X Division Title during its 20 year History. . Athena (became the first female challenger on January 22, 2003) Trinity ( March 19, 2003) Tessa Blanchard ( October 20, 2019 and February 9, 2020) Jordynne Grace ( October 20, 2020 and April 1, 2022) Belt designs. In May 2007, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) ended their five-year partnership with TNA, which allowed the NWA to regain control over the NWA World Heavyweight and  World Tag Team Championships that TNA had controlled since June 2002. TNA then introduced a new TNA X Division Championship belt on the May 16, 2007 edition of TNA's online podcast "TNA Today". Jeremy Borash and Management Director Jim Cornette, TNA's on-screen authority figure at the time, unveiled the new belt and awarded it to then-champion Chris Sabin. On July 19, 2013, former TNA President Dixie Carter unveiled a new design for the championship, with blue accents to match the color scheme of the company. On June 16, 2015, TNA tweaked the title's design by  recoloring its accents from blue to green. On August 18, 2017, the X Division Championship design was given a complete overhaul to reflect TNA's transfer to the Global Force Wrestling moniker. On October 26, 2017, Trevor Lee was seen in a taped segment on Impact! with a new version of the title belt branded for Impact Wrestling. In 2020, Impact Wrestling redesigned the belt, putting a big red "X" on the center plate (a nod to the original belt), and made red the dominant color. Reigns. The inaugural champion was A.J. Styles, who won the championship by defeating Low  Ki, Jerry Lynn, and Psicosis in a Four Way Double Elimination match on June 19, 2002 at TNA's second weekly PPV event. At 301 days, Austin Aries' first reign holds the record for longest in the title's history. At less than one day, Eric Young's only reign, and Chris Sabin's sixth reign and Rockstar Spud's second reign are the shortest in the title's history. Chris Sabin holds the record for most reigns with eight. The current champion is Ace Austin, who is in his third reign. He defeated Mike Bailey and Trey Miguel in  a three-way match on April 23, 2022 in Poughkeepsie, NY at Rebellion.