TNA Impact Wrestling Officially Gets Rid Of One Of Its Biggest Titles
There have been a lot of changes in TNA Impact Wrestling over the last few years and they are continuing to make things a bit different. Last week, Austin Aries continued to dominate in his return to the company by winning the Impact World Heavyweight Championship back from Pentagon Jr. With that victory, he has chosen to unify that title with the Impact Grand Championship he won from Matt Sydal which will make the latter extinct.
According to Wrestling Inc., the less-than-two-year-old title is being done away with and has officially been retired. They aren’t just letting it go without an explanation, though, as Impact Wrestling is simply saying that Austin Aries is going to unify his two championships to have the one Impact World Heavyweight Title.
Throughout its short-lived history, the Impact Grand Championship has only had eight title reigns with one person (Moose) holding it twice. Moose actually has the longest reign with the title during his second run when he held it for 174 days before losing it to Ethan Carter III.
Aries’ current run with the title is the second-longest at 141 days, but that is where it will come to an end.
BREAKING NEWS: @AustinAries has officially merged the IMPACT World and Grand Championship into one undisputed World Championship. pic.twitter.com/bY77HbJPqm
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) June 4, 2018
The final Grand Champion and the Grandest @IMPACTWRESTLING World Champ of them all, so said the mirror mirror on the wall. https://t.co/oeIsIVsoaI
— Austin Aries (@AustinAries) June 4, 2018
In October of 2016, the Impact Grand Championship was created and it has been viewed as one of the top titles in the company. Aron Rex, formerly known as Damien Sandow in WWE, was the inaugural champion after defeating Eddie Edwards in the final of the tournament.
From there, the list of champions is as follows:
- Aron Rex
- Moose
- Drew Galloway
- Moose (2)
- Ethan Carter III
- Matt Sydal
- Josh Mathews
- Austin Aries
The situation with Mathews was a weird one as Sydal “gifted” the title to him when he was revealed to be Matt’s spirit guide. One day later, Aries defeated Sydal for the title when the superstar defended it on behalf of the true champion, Josh Mathews.
After the mess that was the merge of Global Force Wrestling and TNA Impact Wrestling, there have been a lot of changes in the company. A number of superstars have come and gone while the promotion has even changed locations and is no longer centered in Orlando.
Austin Aries will go down in history as one of the most successful stars in TNA Impact Wrestling and he’ll forever be known as the last ever Impact Grand Champion. After winning back the World Heavyweight Championship, he realized that there was no need to carry around two titles any longer and decided to simply unify them.
