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In recent months, Impact Wrestling has enjoyed something of a renascence. Slammiversary 2018 caught the attention of the wrestling world and has drawn new viewers to Impact's weekly TV Show. Some of these new viewers have no idea of the history of Impact and its Championships. I want to take a look at the five longest reigning Impact World Champions in the companies history
From June 2002 to May 2007 Impact, then known as TNA, had a working relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). During that period they used the NWA World Championship as their main title. The NWA abruptly ended the relationship with TNA and pulled the World Championship from their programming. This left TNA without a World Championship and so they were forced to create their own. They crowned Kurt Angle as their first World Champion after he beat Sting and Christian Cage in a triple threat match at Sacrifice 2007. This is the Championship I am counting the longest reigns of and not the NWA Worlds Championship.
#5 Kurt Angle (180 days; 16 Oct 2007 - 13 April 08)
Kurt Angle is a six-time Impact World Champion, with a combined 608 days as champion. He was also the first ever Impact World Champion, however, he only held the championship for a day because he was stripped of the title on the next episode of Impact. This also makes him the shortest reigning champion. His longest reign was his third, which lasted 180 days. He won the title on the October 25th 2007 episode of Impact by defeating Sting. That episode aired on a tape delay, so he technically won the title on October 16th 2007. He lost the title at Lockdown 2008 to Samoa Joe in a steel cage match.
Angle played a huge part in the growth of Impact since his début for the company in 2006 and at one point Angle held every title in Impact at the same time.
#4 Samoa Joe (182 days; 13 April 2008 - 12 Oct 2008)
Samoa Joe only had one World Championship reign and it lasted 182 days. He won the title from Kurt Angle in the aforementioned steel cage match at Lockdown 2008. Joe lost the title to Sting at Bound For Glory on October 12th 2008. Joe was a big star on the independent scene before he signed for Impact in 2005. He received praise for his matches in Ring of Honor against CM Punk and his matches against Japanese legend's Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa.
Samoa Joe went on an 18-month undefeated streak at the beginning of his TNA career before losing to Kurt Angle at Genesis 2006.
#3 Sting (189 days; 12 Oct 2008- 19 Apr 2009)
Sting is a four-time Impact World Champion, with a combined 326 days as champion. He won the title by defeating Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory on October 12th 2008. Sting lost the title to Mick Foley at Lockdown on April 19th 2009 in a Steel Cage match. Sting was another big signing for Impact at the time. He had been in contract talks with WWE but decided not to sign for them and instead signed a contract for four appearances with Impact in 2003.
He returned in 2005 as a full-time wrestler and left in 2014 after losing a Career vs Title match to Nick Aldis.
#2 AJ Styles (211 days; 20 Sep 2009 - 19 Apr 2010)
AJ Styles is a two-time Impact World Champion, with a combined 220 days as champion. He won the title in a five-way match at No Surrender on September 20th 2009. Kurt Angle was champion going into the match. AJ held the title for 211 days before finally losing the title to Rob Van Dam on an episode of Impact on April 19th 2010.
AJ's second reign only lasted nine days because he left the company and was forced to vacate to the title. Styles is often called a "TNA Original" because he wrestled on the first TNA card on June 19th 2002.
#1 Bobby Roode (256 days; 26 Oct 2011 - 8 July 2012)
Bobby Roode is a two-time Impact World Champion and the longest reigning champion in Impact history with a combined 367 days as champion. He won the title by defeating James Storm on an episode of Impact on November 3 2011. That episode of Impact aired on a tape delay, so he technically won the title on October 26 2011. He held the title for 256 days before losing it to Austin Aries at Destination X on July 8th 2012. The match against Aries was of huge significance as it was the first time an X Division Champion had used Option C; an option to vacate the X Division Championship for a shot at the World Championship. The reign of Bobby Roode will go down as one of the best in Impact history. During his title reign Roode was a credible main event act and really grew into the role as heel champion.
