Since the launch of TNA in 2002, to the present under the name of impact wrestling, the company has had quite the history of champions in its past. From names like Kurt Angle, Sting, AJ Styles, and a plethora of other legends, Impact Wrestling has had a number of legendary world champions.
Looking at some of the company’s more recent champions, the company has seen its fair share of big names, including Kenny Omega, Christian Cage, Eddie Edwards and Josh Alexander, who was forced to vacate his belt due to injury, finishing the longest. title reign in company history. As we turn back the clock, these are the last 10 Impact World Champions ranked from worst to best.
10 Josh Alexander (first reign)
A man with two Impact World Championship reigns, Josh Alexander is the current face of the company after going from Tag Team Expert, to X Division star, to World Champion. Holding the last ten Impact World Champions, Josh’s first reign with the Impact World Championship is the default last position as it only lasted a few moments. At Bound for Glory 2021, Alexander would defeat Christian Cage to become the new Impact World Champion, only to lose the belt moments later to Moose, trading his Call Your Shot Gauntlet Contract for a world title match, thus ending the feud. Josh’s reign and starting a 6 month story.
9 tessa white
If Josh Alexander’s first reign had lasted more than one night, he might not have been in 10th place, as the next contender for that spot would be the only woman to hold the Impact World Championship, Tessa Blanchard. Arriving on the scene on Impact with a lot of potential, Blanchard would receive a strong push to the top of the card, with a feud against Sami Callihan that would end with her becoming World Champion.
Unfortunately for Impact, Tessa would become damaged merchandise, with a series of allegations coming to light that she was racist towards her peers. She would make one belt defense, against Taya Valkyrie, before going into business for herself by refusing to show up for tapings to lose the world title. After the company halted filming due to COVID-19, she would be stripped naked and she would be crowned a new champion.
8 Eric Young (2nd reign)
After returning to the company following his release from WWE, Eric Young would shock the world by winning the Impact World Championship shortly after returning. To many, it seemed like a typical decision for Impact to award the world title to a returning WWE wrestler, even more so considering Young’s age. However, Eric Young did an extremely solid job during his last tenure with the company.
Still, this reign was nothing to write home about, only lasting about two months, with him dethroning Eddie Edwards to win the belt in early September 2020 before losing the belt to Rich Swann in late October. Young would go on to find success in the label division, leading the Violent By Design faction to gold before ending his final stint with Impact in 2022.
7 Eddie Edwards (2nd reign)
Following Impact’s production halt for the first few months of COVID-19, the company would return to an empty set. With Tessa Blanchard MIA, she would also be stripped of the Impact World Championship, leading to a Five-Way Elimination Match at Slammiversary 2020.
This match would see Eddie Edwards take on Ace Austin, Eric Young, Rich Swann, and Trey Miguel, with Edwards winning the match and earning his second Impact World Championship. As for the reign itself, it would end up not being that special, it would last from July until September with some weak defenses for Eddie.
6 christian cage
By defeating Kenny Omega to become Impact World Champion during the summer of 2021, Christian Cage would return to Impact Wrestling after years away from the company. While it would be quite a short reign, Christian would deliver when called upon, with successful defenses against Brian Myers and Ace Austin during Impact pay-per-views. This would be capped off by a singles marquee defense at Bound for Glory 2021, where Cage would lose to Josh Alexander in a fantastic main event match.
5 rich swan
Rich Swann made a name for himself in WWE’s cruiserweight division and would eventually find himself in Impact Wrestling’s X division. After working his way up the ranks of the company, it would become clear that the company saw more for the talented athlete, as he would begin his journey to the World Championship. By defeating Eric Young in October 2020, Rich Swann would do the impossible by defying the odds during a storyline injury to become Impact World Champion.
From there, Swann’s reign would begin with defenses against Ken Shamrock, Chris Bey, Tommy Dreamer, and Sami Callihan, all prominent members of the Impact Wrestling roster. However, by the end of the year, an invader would come to Impact Wrestling, as AEW World Champion Kenny Omega would become Swann’s final challenger, taking Swann’s Impact World Championship and becoming the Belt Collector.
4 sami callihan
One of the staples of Impact Wrestling for the past few years has been Sami Callihan. After careers in NXT and Lucha Underground, Callihan would make Impact his home and has become a world-class talent as part of the roster. In October 2019, he would take things to the next level, defeating Brian Cage to become Impact World Champion and embarking on his first and only title run.
With his reign lasting for around 3 months, Callihan would provide strong defenses against Brian Cage, Rich Swann and Rhino before facing Tessa Blanchard at Hard to Kill 2020, delivering a professional performance as Blanchard would defeat him for the belt, capping off a storyline. of several months between the two.
3 Moose
Rising to prominence in Ring of Honor, Moose would begin his wrestling career as a one trick pony. In ROH, he couldn’t achieve all of that before finally landing on Impact, where it would take him some time to develop into the talent he is today. In recent years, Moose has clearly pushed himself and become one of Impact Wrestling’s biggest and most trusted stars, and he’s also one of the best recent champions.
Wrapping up Josh Alexander’s big climactic moment in a matter of moments in Bound For Glory 2021, Moose would go on to become Impact’s ultimate villain, a role he was perfectly cast in. His reign would be highlighted by matches against W. Morrissey, Matt Cardona, and later, the Rebellion 2022 battle against Josh Alexander that would go down as the best match of Moose’s entire career.
2 kenny omega
While Moose may have been the greatest champion in Impact Wrestling history, Kenny Omega would be the greatest champion in the ring. For that reason, these two men can be swapped around based on preference, though Omega takes the cake here. After defeating Rich Swann, Omega would begin his career as a Belt Collector in AEW, Impact, and AAA, holding top prizes in all three promotions.
During his time on Impact, Kenny would make two incredible title defenses against Moose and Sami Callihan before handing the belt over to Christian Cage on the first episode of AEW Rampage. While ideally this reign would have ended with Omega losing to Josh Alexander at Bound for Glory, due to Omega’s continued injuries, he would slow down in singles matches before his Full Gear match with Hangman Page, and then take a break. from wrestling to the next. Summer.
1 Josh Alexander (2nd reign)
To top off the most recent set of Impact World Champions, there is none other than Josh Alexander. To put it simply, Alexander’s second reign with this belt should go down in the history books as one of the best world championship reigns in any promotion. Josh put the title above himself and elevated every challenger that came his way, both on and off Impact.
During this reign, Josh Alexander would take himself to a higher level than ever before, feeling like the definition of a world champion wrestler with incredible matches against Tomohiro Ishii, Alex Shelley, Eddie Edwards, Moose, Frankie Kazarian and Mike Bailey, all while making his opponents look great in defeat and elevating his championship in the process. While his reign has ended due to untimely injury, Alexander’s time will surely come again as he is the face of Impact Wrestling.