Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Championship

History

The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion formed in May 2002. Later that same year, TNA were granted control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body, subsequently becoming an official NWA territory as NWA–TNA. On June 19, 2002, NWA–TNA held its first show: a weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event. The main event of the telecast was a twenty–man Gauntlet for the Gold match—involving all twenty men trying to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate them, until there are two men left who wrestle a standard match—to become the first ever TNA–era NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win the vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as Special Guest Referee at the event. TNA crowned the first TNA–era NWA World Tag Team Champions at their third weekly PPV event on July 3, 2002, when the team of A.J. Styles and Jerry Lynn defeated The Rainbow Express (Bruce and Lenny Lane) in a tournament final to win the championship.

Creation

The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until the morning of May 13, 2007. On that day, NWA's Executive Director Robert Trobich announced that the NWA were ending their five–year agreement with TNA, which had allowed them full control over both titles. Trobich went on to state that effective that morning, then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and the Team 3D pairing of Brother Devon and Brother Ray, then-NWA World Tag Team Champions, were stripped of their respective championships. The motivation behind these actions was that Cage refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from NWA territories. That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice 2007 PPV event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships. On the card, Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a match involving three competitors, also known as a Three-Way match. Team 3D were set to defend the NWA World Tag Team Championship against the team of Scott Steiner and Tomko and the team made up of Hernandez and Homicide, who were known as The Latin American Xchange (LAX), in another Three Way match.

That night before each contest, the on-screen graphic used to refer to the champions and their respective championships, credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA Champions. However, the ring announcers for the encounters proclaimed the matches as being strictly for the "World Heavyweight Championship" or the "World Tag Team Championship". Team 3D defeated Steiner and Tomko and LAX in the first Three Way championship bout to retain the "World Tag Team Championship". In the second Three Way championship encounter, Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the "World Heavyweight Championship".

On May 17, 2007, Jeremy Borash and TNA's primary authority figure at the time, Jim Cornette, unveiled the TNA World Tag Team Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online podcast TNA Today and awarded it to Team 3D; in the process making them the first official champions.

Belt designs

During the championship's entire history, it has had one design. It begins with a leather strap that is covered with four small gold plates that has an imprint of the earth centered in the middle with TNA's official logo at the top of each. The center golden plate of the belt also has an imprint of a globe, with TNA's official logo engraved over it. The words "World Tag Team" are placed above the globe, while the words "Wrestling Champion" are placed below it.^[1]

Reigns

The inaugural champions were Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray), who were awarded the championship on the May 17, 2007 edition of TNA Today. At 212 days, Beer Money, Inc.'s (Bobby Roode and James Storm) fourth reign is the longest in the title's history. Eric Young/Super Eric and Kaz's only reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title's history at a half day.

The current champions are Ortiz and Santana of the Latin American Xchange (LAX), who are in their first reign both individually and as a team. They defeated Decay, Reno Scum, and the team of Garza Jr. and The Laredo Kid in a four-way match to win the vacant titles on March 4, 2017 in Orlando, Florida during the Impact Wrestling tapings.

Individually, James Storm holds the record with seven reigns, while Beer Money and The Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) share the record of five reigns as a team.

Although the title is a World Tag Team Championship, three wrestlers have held the championship by themselves — Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, and Matt Morgan. Joe held the championship during his entire reign alone; however, Angle held the championship alone for 15 days until Sting won a match involving three other competitors to become Angle's partner, and Morgan held the title after turning on and (kayfabe) injuring his tag team championship partner Hernandez. Overall, there have been 41 reigns shared between 43 wrestlers and 29 teams.