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- Over the course of two decades, Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA) hasn’t just produced a lot of pro wrestling television but also featured countless recognizable wrestlers including future stars, aging veterans, and everything in between. Outside of the outstanding and the legendarily terrible, there’s a lot in Impact’s 20 years that’s easy to forget, including some title reigns by pretty well-known stars in the promotion. There’s always room for more trivia in discussing pro wrestling, so let’s look at a few more forgotten championship runs by Impact wrestlers, including a quick transitional reign and a title win by a performer who ended up hitting greater heights after he departed the promotion.
TNA or Impact Wrestling has produced some of the best wrestlers in the history of pro wrestling ever since they opened their doors for business back in 2002. They groomed several homegrown talents and gave a fresh alternative to the legends of the business.
Apart from producing the best wrestlers, the company also managed to produce the best champions over the years. The company gave opportunities to their wrestlers and brought the best out of them, which made certain title reigns extra memorable.
However, there are certain championship reigns in Impact Wrestling history that never really connected with the fans or remained in their memories for a long time. With that said, let's take a look at ten Impact Wrestling stars you forgot had title reigns.
UPDATE: 2022/09/25 15:30 EST BY Danny Djeljosevic
Over the course of two decades, Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA) hasn’t just produced a lot of pro wrestling television but also featured countless recognizable wrestlers including future stars, aging veterans, and everything in between. Outside of the outstanding and the legendarily terrible, there’s a lot in Impact’s 20 years that’s easy to forget, including some title reigns by pretty well-known stars in the promotion. There’s always room for more trivia in discussing pro wrestling, so let’s look at a few more forgotten championship runs by Impact wrestlers, including a quick transitional reign and a title win by a performer who ended up hitting greater heights after he departed the promotion.
13 Ron Killings
Before he was the WWE comedy genius R-Truth, Ron “The Truth” Killings hit a major milestone in the Impact Zone, becoming not only the first Black man to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship but also holding it twice. But Killings also competed in the tag team division, where he had a bizarre run with Tennessee Titans football player Adam “Pacman” Jones. Team Pacman, as they were called, scored a 35-day reign with the Impact World Tag Team Title during which the Titans wouldn’t allow Jones to actually wrestle, forcing Consequences Creed (a.k.a. Xavier Woods) to fill in for Pacman.
12 Chris Sabin
For many fans, Chris Sabin’s big contribution to Impact was being in one of its best tag teams ever, the Motor City Machine Guns, as well as being a record eight-time X-Division Champion. But in 2013, Sabin ended up using the X-Division Title’s Option C, trading the belt for a title shot at Impact’s top heel, Bully Ray, dethroning the champ at Impact Wrestling’s special “Destination X” episode. Chris Sabin’s big World Title run would last 28 days, dropping the belt to Bully Ray on the first defense, with the reign being a political decision on Impact’s part that did Sabin no favors.
11 Sanada
Fans who go back and watch 2014 Impact Wrestling may be surprised once they put two and two together and realize that the vanilla babyface Sanada is the same Sanada who joined Los Ingobernables de Japon and put on bangers with Kota Ibushi and Kazuchika Okada. Long before becoming a decorated New Japan Pro-Wrestling star, Sanada was part of Impact’s X Division.
At the time, Impact had a working relationship with Japanese promotion WRESTLE-1, where Sanada ended up defeating Austin Aries to capture the X-Division Title. After 110 days and title defenses against opponents like Christopher Daniels, Tigre Uno, and Eddie Edwards, Sanada would drop the belt back to Austin Aries on an episode of Impact Wrestling.
10 Tomko
Tomko's pro wrestling career began in WWE, where he worked under the name Tyson Tomko between 2002 and 2006. He acted as Christian's enforcer for the most of his time with WWE, and when he started his singles journey, WWE did book him as a monster heel, but soon his push watered down, and he left the company in 2006.
He signed with Impact Wrestling in 2006 and began working with Christian again in the Christian's Coalition faction, which also included AJ Styles, with whom he went on to capture the TNA World Tag Team Championship and held it for 184 days.
9 Tigre Uno
Tigre Uno, who currently works the independent circuit as Extreme Tiger, worked for Impact Wrestling between 2013 and 2016. He worked in the X-Division for most of his time in the promotion and his efforts soon proved successful when the company chose to give him a run with the X-Division Championship.
Tigre Uno defeated Grado and Low Ki for the X-Division Championship on the June 24, 2015, episode of Impact, and held it for an impressive 199 days before dropping it to Trevor Lee on the February 2, 2016, episode of Impact.
8 Taylor Wilde
Taylor Wilde joined Impact Wrestling's Knockouts Division in 2008 and surprisingly received an instant push, resulting in her winning the Women's Knockouts Championship. She defeated Awesome Kong on the July 10, 2008, episode of Impact to win the title for the first time.
She held the title for 121 days and defended it against the likes of Velvet Sky, Angelina Love, and Roxxi before losing it back to Awesome Kong on the October 23, 2008, episode of Impact. She had a decent run with the title, but her push was soon watered down, and the lackluster booking during her final days with the company made her Knockouts title reign obsolete.
7 Shawn Daivari
Shawn Daivari, who currently works as a backstage producer for WWE, is the next wrestler on the list. He is well known among the fans for his time as the manager of Muhammad Hassan in WWE. After he got released from his WWE contract in 2007, he went over to Impact Wrestling and started using a similar gimmick and attire as Hassan and working in the company's X-Division.
He went on to capture the X-Division Championship from Petey Williams at TNA No Surrender 2008 and had an 84-day run with the title before dropping it to Eric Young at the Final Resolution PPV.
6 Michael Shane
Former Impact Wrestling star Michael Shane is the cousin of WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels. He started working under the name Michael Shane, which resembles HBK's in-ring name, and also used the super kick as his finisher.
He is a former two-time X-Division Champion, and his first reign went on to last for an impressive 140 days, during which time he defended the title against the likes of Jerry Lynn, Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels, and Low-Ki before dropping it to Sabin on the January 7, 2004, weekly PPV episode of Impact.
5 Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash made his Impact Wrestling debut in 2004 and reunited with Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett to form the Kings of Wrestling faction. He continued to work on various storylines until he got his hands on some gold at the promotion.
He captured the Legends Championship in July 2009, but his first reign ended in just two days. However, he recaptured the title by defeating Mick Foley at Hard Justice 2009 and held it for 63 days before losing it to Eric Young at Bound for Glory 2009, who would rename the title the TNA Global Championship.
4 Mick Foley
Mick Foley's last championship reign before signing with Impact Wrestling came in 1999, when he won the WWE World Tag Team Championship alongside Al Snow. No one expected the Hardcore Legend to become a world champion again ten years after his previous reign with a championship, but Foley broke all the negativity by capturing the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at the 2009 Lockdown PPV.
He defeated Sting for the title at the event, and went on to hold it for 63 days before losing it to Kurt Angle in a King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary 2009.
3 Zelina Vega
Current WWE Superstar Zelina Vega is next on the list as she worked with Impact Wrestling between 2011 and 2013. She worked under the name Rosita and competed mostly in the Knockouts tag team division.
She won the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship for the first time with her partner Sarita when they defeated Angelina Love and Winter for the title at Victory Road 2011. They held the title for an impressive 121 days before losing it to Miss Tessmacher and Tara on the July 21, 2011, episode of Impact.
2 Mia Yim
Following her release from WWE, Mia Yim returned to Impact Wrestling in May 2022. Her first run with the promotion came between 2015 and 2017, during which time she competed under the name Jade and went on to become the Knockouts Champion.
She defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne on the April 5, 2016, episode of Impact to win the championship, and held it for 87 days. She had two successful defenses against Kim and Rayne before finally losing the title to Sienna at the 2016 Slammiversary PPV in a three-way match, also including Gail Kim.
1 Chavo Guerrero
Chavo Guerrero made his debut for Impact Wrestling in July 2012 and soon went on to form a tag team with Hernandez. He and Hernandez went on to become two-time TNA World Tag Team Champions between October 2012 and June 2013.
They won the titles for the first time when they defeated the teams of AJ Styles and Kurt Angle and Christopher Daniels and Kazarian at Bound for Glory 2012. They held the titles for 103 days and defended them against the likes of Joey Ryan and Matt Morgan and Christopher Daniels and Kazarian before dropping the titles to Austin Aries and Bobby Roode on the February 7, 2013, episode of Impact.