The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) World Heavyweight Championship is the primary professional wrestling championship in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

History

The start of the company

In 2002, Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett formed NWA TNA, in the process negotiating a licensing deal with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that granted them rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

TNA withdrew from the NWA in 2004, but secured the right to continue to use the two NWA championships until 2014. TNA were permitted to use the titles any way they saw fit, without requiring approval of the NWA Board of Directors. While these titles were still defended in several NWA territories and federations, control of the titles was exclusive to TNA.

Title creation—NWA title vacated

The agreement ended early on May 13 2007 when the NWA and TNA agreed to end their ongoing business relationship, with the NWA formally stripping the reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion of the title. TNA continued to recognize its world heavyweight champions as NWA Champions until May 14^[1] when the new title was created and used during television tapings.^[2] The title was officially unveiled (on TNA's website) on May 15.^[3]

Current champion

The current champion is Kurt Angle, who is in his first reign. He defeated Christian Cage, Chris Harris, Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles in a King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary on June 17, 2007 in Nashville, Tennessee to win the vacant title.

See also

• List of TNA World Heavyweight Champions
• List of TNA World Heavyweight Championship reigns by length
• Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
• http://www.tnawrestling.com/roster/kurtangle/index.html

References

http://www.tnawrestling.com/roster/kurtangle/index.html

External Links

• CygyWrestling.com - TNA World Heavyweight Title History