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TNA, or Impact Wrestling as they are known, is having a hard time at the moment. In fact, has been having a hard time a lot in recent years, whether it be wrestlers leaving the company, bad business decisions or poor attendance, which has left the company under a lot of criticism. But now and the past, they've had one hell of a roster that have given us some of the greatest matches and moments over the last 16 years.
That brings me to this list of the Top 10 TNA greatest wrestlers in the history of TNA Impact Wrestling.
Note: I will not be including Impact Knockouts on this list as they deserve a top 10 list of their own.
Honorable Mentions: 'Broken' Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Christian Cage, Bully Ray, Brother Devon, Abyss, Eric Young, Bobby Lashley, Eli Drake, Kazarian, Raven, LAX, Magnus, Eddie Edwards, Drew Galloway, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelly, Kevin Nash, Low Ki, Ron 'The Truth' Killings, Mr. Anderson, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lynn, Rhino, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Petey Williams, Rockstar Spud, Mick Foley and Hulk Hogan
#10 Ethan Carter III
After a forgettable and dreadful run in WWE developmental's FCW and reality version of NXT as 'Derrick Bateman', the man to become then TNA President's Dixie Carter's 'nephew', Ethan Carter III, arrived in TNA Impact Wrestling in 2013 and made an immediate, pardon the pun, impact.
EC3 was given a strong push right off the bat as Dixie Carter's spoiled rich nephew, where he would only intentionally compete against TV jobbers for a number of months. While a gimmick like this would be enough for fans to lose interest quickly, EC3 maintained his audience with his excellent heel personality.
At a time when Impact began to lose many of its top superstars, EC3 remained a constant reason to remain watching with his often hilarious heel persona and eventual exciting top tier feuds with every big Impact star. EC3 wrestled more than a dozen thrilling matches and left the company earlier this year to return to WWE as a former 2 time Impact World Champion and former Impact Grand Champion.
#9 Christopher Daniels
'The Fallen Angel' Christopher Daniels debuted for TNA very early on in 2002. He quickly formed a trio with Elix Skipper and Low Ki, known as Triple X, where they held the NWA Tag Team Championships 3 times and had one of TNA's greatest ever feuds, with America's Most Wanted.
From their, Daniels would move onto the X Division where he would become a 4 time X Division Champion and have most of his best matches in the company, with the like of AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. Daniels's matches with AJ and Joe, particularly the several Triple Threats between them, are regarded as the best matches in company history.
Daniels would also hold the Tag Team titles with James Storm, and in very popular tag teams with AJ Styles, and later Kazarian, as the 'Bad Influence'. Daniels also showed in comedic chops in TNA in 2008 when he spent the year performing as the gimmick, Curry Man.
Christopher Daniels is often regarded as the greatest wrestler in TNA/Impact history to never be World Heavyweight Champion in the company.
#8 James Storm
'The Cowboy' James Storm was a TNA original, debuting on the first ever TNA show on June 19, 2002. He briefly left Impact in the later summer in 2015 and wrestled a few televised matches for WWE on NXT, before returning in Impact in January 2016, and leaving again this past January.
James Storm is regarded as the best tag team wrestler in TNA/Impact history, having been apart of the two best teams in company history, America's Most Wanted (with Chris Harris) and Beer Money Inc. (with Bobby Roode). Storm was a 14 time World Tag team Champion in Impact, 7 times with the NWA Tag titles, and 7 with the TNA Tag Team titles. Storm also held the King of The Mountain Championship and had a short run as World Heavyweight Champion.
'The Cowboy' has also wrestled some of the best matches in TNA history, in tag team matches, as well as matches against former partners Chris Harris and Bobby Roode.
#7 Austin Aries
Thank God TNA/Impact has given Austin Aries so many chances with them, after a few fallout's between both sides. Aries debuted for TNA in 2005, where he mostly wrestling both against and alongside Roderick Strong. He parted ways with TNA in early 2006 after choosing to miss TNA shows in favor of Ring of Honor shows.
He returned in 2007, under the name Austin Starr, with a gimmick inspired by Starsky and Hutch's Huggy Bear character. Aries left TNA again later that year over his attitude problems.
Aries returned yet again for his most famous and successful run with TNA in 2011, 'earning' a TNA contract after an excellent match with Low Ki, Zema Ion and Jack Evans and Destination X, and won the X Division Championship shortly after, and held it for almost a year before vacating it in exchange for a World Championship match, and then beat Bobby Roode for the title at Destination X 2012. Aries would go onto hold the X Division Championship 5 more times, as well as the Tag Team titles with Bobby Roode in an entertaining tag team called the Dirty Heels.
After a failed run with WWE, Aries returned to Impact this past January and has since become one of the biggest stars in wrestling, arguably the biggest outside of WWE, where he has held the Impact World Championship 2 more times, and is also the Impact Grand Champion, as well as holding several other Championships outside of Impact.
#6 Bobby Roode
Bobby Roode always had potential to be huge. He debuted for TNA in 2004 as apart of the faction, 'team Canada', along with Eric Young, Petey Williams, A-1 and manager Scott D'Amore.
After the breakup of Team Canada, Roode began referring to himself as "TNA's hottest free agent and took on a Wall Street Stock trader gimmick. After spending the next two years feuding with the like of Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Young, Abyss and Sting, among more, Bobby was thrown together with James Storm as a tag team. No one knows if the plan had always been to keep them together, but regardless, the two meshed very well as a team and were kept together.
As Beer Money Inc., the two would become a 5-time World Tag Team Champion. Bobby also held the Tag titles with Eric Young and Austin Aries, the King of The Mountain Championship and be a 2 time World Heavyweight Champion, the first of which him as the second longest reigning Champion in company history, longest reigning TNA World Champion overall.
Bobby has also had more than a dozen classic matches with the like of James Storm, Austin Aries, Kurt Angle and more.
#5 Jeff Jarrett
If it wasn't for Jeff Jarrett, we wouldn't even have Impact Wrestling. Jeff and father Jerry Jarrett founded the then TNA in 2002, and quickly aligned it with the NWA.
With most big performers in the world in 2002 either working for WWE or not interested in working at all, TNA's main event scene was limited pretty early on, so ol' double J, always having a bit of a high opinion of himself, decided to build the company around himself. In the first 4 years of TNA's existence, Jeff was a 6 time NWA World Champion, which included holding it for just a few weeks shy of one full year at one point, a company title record.
Despite Jeff's ego playing a prominent role here, Jeff still gave a number of great performances before, during and after his 6 Championship reigns to make it on this list. Jeff has had many great matches with the like of AJ Styles, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Christian Cage and many more, and had one of the all-time best feuds in company history with Kurt Angle.
Despite founding the company, as of 2015, Jeff has no longer any ties or stock in the company, after agreeing to be bought out and inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame. And as of 2018, he is a proud member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
#4 Samoa Joe
Samoa Joe entered TNA to a monster push in 2005. He gained an 18 month long undefeated streak in one-on-one action and held the X Division Championship 5 times, a 2 time Tag Team Champion, a TV Champion and also held the World Heavyweight Championship.
Although Joe won the Heavyweight Championship in one of TNA's all-time greatest matches (vs. Kurt Angle at Lockdown 2008), Joe's reign actually hurt his chances of a better position on this list due to how poor it was. Strangely, he barely had any entertaining matches at all during the reign, even when sharing the ring with Kurt Angle and AJ Styles, and wouldn't have another great Championship match until he lost it to Sting at Bound For Glory 2008.
Joe still makes the top 5 due to the high number of excellent matches he has had with TNA, especially with the like of AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Kurt Angle and Sting, among others.
#3 Sting
It was the huge return no one expected, but in late 2005 it was revealed that WCW Icon Sting planned on coming out of semi-retirement for a full-time TV run with TNA.
Sting returned at Final Resolution 2006, teaming with Christian Cage to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown. Sting played up the majority of the year with a retirement angle, that ultimately ended with he winning the NWA World Championship at Bound For Glory, over Jeff Jarrett. From here, Sting would win the TNA World Championship 4 times, as well as the Tag Team Championship.
He had the best match of his career since at least 1999, with Kurt Angle at Bound For Glory 2007, and went onto have many more thrilling matches with AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and many more.
He was rightfully picked as the inaugural inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2012, and signed a legends deal with WWE in 2014.
#2 Kurt Angle
Fans were shocked to their core in 2006 when WWE announced they had parted ways with arguably the best in-ring performer in history, Kurt Angle. After some short MMA speculation, it was announced at TNA No Surrender 2006 that Kurt would be joining the company, and what a run it was.
Kurt entered TNA hot with arguably the best feud in company history, with Samoa Joe, which included some of the best matches in company history also. Kurt would then become the inaugural TNA World Heavyweight Champion at Slammiversary 2007, and would go onto become a 6 time TNA World Champion. At one point, he also held the X Division and Tag Team Championships, and IWGP Championship at the same time.
The second inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame, Kurt has had some of the best matches in TNA history, with Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss and many more. He mutually parted ways with TNA in 2016 and the Hall of Famer returned to WWE the following year.
#1 AJ Styles
Could their have been anyone else for the top spot?
Kurt Angle may be arguably the best of all time, but AJ Styles still edges him out for being the best wrestler in TNA/Impact history.
The man who was seemingly to TNA what Sting and The Undertaker are to WCW and WWE, AJ Styles debuted for TNA, not just on the debut show, but the debut match. The following week he became the inaugural TNA X Division Champion in TNA's first truly excellent match and went onto have 5 more reigns with the title. AJ also held the NWA Tag Team Championship 4 times, World Tag titles 2 times, Legends/TV Championship 2 times, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 3 times and TNA World Championship twice.
AJ wrestled the best match in TNA history with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels at Unbreakable 2005, and has had many more of the best TNA matches ever with Joe and Daniels solo, as well as Kurt Angle, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki and many more.
AJ Styles is truly Phenomenal!
