The
Ring of Honor World Championship is a
professional wrestlingProfessional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
world heavyweight championship in
Ring of HonorRing of Honor ' is an American professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2002 by Rob Feinstein and Gabe Sapolsky. From 2004 to 2011, the promotion was under the ownership of Cary Silkin before being sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in May 2011...
. The championship has also been through other companies in cooperation with ROH through the
Global Professional Wrestling AllianceThe Global Professional Wrestling Alliance is a cooperative group of professional wrestling promotions and wrestlers from around the world. Formed in 2006, the group was founded by the professional wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa, the founder of Pro Wrestling Noah...
(GPWA), the governing body of many independent wrestling promotions throughout the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The current Ring of Honor World championship belt was designed and crafted by All Star Championship Belts.
History
Low Ki defeated
SpankyBrian David Kendrick is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under his real name. Before joining TNA he spent several years wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment, where he wrestled under his name, as Spanky, and finally as "The" Brian Kendrick...
,
Christopher DanielsDaniel Christopher Covell is an American professional wrestler, best known in the United States by his ring name "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. He is also known for performing under the ring name Curry Man. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , while also...
, and
Doug WilliamsDouglas Clayton Durdle is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Doug Williams. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Douglas Williams...
in a
60 Minute Iron Man matchAn Iron Man match is a professional wrestling match type that is set to go a specific amount of time, usually 30 or 60 minutes, with the competitor with the most falls at the end of that time named the victor...
to become the first ROH Champion at Crowning a Champion on July 27, 2002.
Samoa JoeNuufolau Joel "Joe" Seanoa is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Samoa Joe. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling....
had the longest title reign to date when he held the belt for 21 months and four days. During his reign, ROH held a cross-promotional show with
Frontier Wrestling AllianceFrontier Wrestling Alliance is a British professional wrestling promotion. Established in 1993 as the Fratton Wrestling Association it soon became the Frontier Wrestling Alliance six years later and until 2007 when it lost a scripted inter-promotional feud with International Pro Wrestling: United...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on May 17, 2003 called Frontiers of Honor. At that show, Joe turned the title into the ROH World Championship when he defended it against
The Zebra KidRoy Bevis, better known by his ring name Zebra Kid is a British professional wrestler. Bevis is the son of the well-known wrestler-turned-promoter, Ricky Knight...
. Since then the title has been defended in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
On August 12, 2006, the
ROH Pure ChampionshipThe Ring of Honor Pure Championship was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor...
was unified with the ROH World Championship after ROH Pure Champion
Nigel McGuinnessSteven Haworth is an English professional wrestler, better known by the ring names Desmond Wolfe and Nigel McGuinness. As McGuinness he first gained notoriety working for Ring of Honor in the United States and Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan...
lost to ROH World Champion
Bryan DanielsonBryan Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand as Daniel Bryan, and currently holds the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase, which enables him to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at any time of his choosing...
in
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in a title unification match. The match was contested under pure wrestling rules, with the stipulation that both championships could be lost by disqualification or count out.
In 2010 the title belt, along with the ROH World Tag Team Championships, was redesigned. The new belt has an eagle with its wings spread over a picture of the world with an ROH logo on the top. This design also includes various
flagsThe FLAGS pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in the North Sea which is used to transport liquids and associated gas from the following fields:* Cormorant A* North Cormorant* North West Hutton...
on different countries.
Reigns
The inaugural champion was Low Ki, who defeated
Christopher DanielsDaniel Christopher Covell is an American professional wrestler, best known in the United States by his ring name "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. He is also known for performing under the ring name Curry Man. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , while also...
,
SpankyBrian David Kendrick is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under his real name. Before joining TNA he spent several years wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment, where he wrestled under his name, as Spanky, and finally as "The" Brian Kendrick...
, and
Doug WilliamsDouglas Clayton Durdle is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Doug Williams. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Douglas Williams...
in a Four Way
60-minute Iron Man matchAn Iron Man match is a professional wrestling match type that is set to go a specific amount of time, usually 30 or 60 minutes, with the competitor with the most falls at the end of that time named the victor...
on July 27, 2002 to become champion.
Samoa JoeNuufolau Joel "Joe" Seanoa is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Samoa Joe. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling....
has the longest reign as champion with his only reign, from March 22, 2003 to December 26, 2004, lasting days and gave the title World status when he defended it in the UK.
James GibsonJames Howard Gibson better known by his WWE ring name Jamie Noble, is an American former professional wrestler currently working for WWE as a trainer. He is best known for his work from 2002 to 2009 when a severe back injury forced him to retire from competition...
currently has the shortest reign at 36 days.
Austin AriesDaniel Healy "Dan" Solwold, Jr. better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , where he is the current X Division Champion...
holds the record for the most reigns, two, winning his second championship after defeating
Jerry LynnJeremy "Jerry" Lynn is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
and
Tyler BlackColby Lopez is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Tyler Black. He is signed to a contract with WWE, where he competes in their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling as Seth Rollins. He is a former FCW 15 Champion and FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with...
in a three-way elimination match on June 13, 2009 at ROH's Manhattan Mayhem III event. The current champion is
Davey RichardsWesley David Richards is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Davey Richards.Richards is currently under contract with Ring of Honor, where he is the current ROH World Champion, but also wrestles for several companies on the independent circuit, including Pro Wrestling...
, who defeated
Eddie EdwardsEddie Edwards is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for wrestling with Ring of Honor , where he is a former ROH World Champion. He also had previous reigns as a former ROH World Tag Team Champion with his partner Davey Richards as The American Wolves and as the inaugural ROH World...
on June 26, 2011 at
Best in the World 2011Best in the World 2011 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view by Ring of Honor that took place on June 26, 2011. It was an afternoon show that began at 4pm and marked the return of ROH to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the first time since 2009...
. Overall, there have been 16 ROH World Championship reigns and 15 total Champions.
See also
- Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor ' is an American professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2002 by Rob Feinstein and Gabe Sapolsky. From 2004 to 2011, the promotion was under the ownership of Cary Silkin before being sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in May 2011...
- ROH Pure Championship
The Ring of Honor Pure Championship was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor...
- ROH World Tag Team Championship
The Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants usually execute...
- ROH World Television Championship
The ROH World Television Championship is a professional wrestling world television championship owned by the United States–based Ring of Honor promotion. It is currently the third ranked championship in ROH. With the introduction of the ROH World Television Championship, the television type...
- Full Impact Pro
Full Impact Pro is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Florida. Their shows are taped and then sold as DVDs. Full Impact Pro was the sister promotion of Ring of Honor until 2009...
- FIP World Heavyweight Championship
The FIP World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Full Impact Pro promotion. It is currently the highest ranked championship in FIP. The title was introduced on September 25, 2004 at FIP's "Emergence: Part Two" event as the FIP...
External links