ROH World Championship Title History

ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Date Established: June 22nd, 2002

Current Champion: Mark Briscoe

Date Won: April 5th, 2024

First Champion(s): Low Ki

Most Reigns: Adam Cole (3 reigns)

Longest Reign: Samoa Joe (645 days)

Shortest Reign: Kyle O'Reilly (33 days)

Oldest Champion: PCO (51 years, 348 days)

Youngest Champion: Low Ki (22 years, 324 days)

Heaviest Champion: Takeshi Morishima (320 lb (150 kg))

Lightest Champion: Jonathan Gresham (161 lb (73 kg))

HISTORY:

Low Ki defeated Spanky, Christopher Daniels and Doug Williams in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match to become the first-ever ROH Champion at ROH's Crowning a Champion on July 27th, 2002 after holding its first tournament to decide the inaugural champion on June 22nd, 2002. 

Samoa Joe had the longest title reign to date when he held the title for a record 21 months and 4 days. During this reign, Ring of Honor Wrestling began to hold cross-promotional events with Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, with it's event ROH x FWA Frontiers of Honor, which took place on May 17th, 2003. At that show, Samoa Joe turned the title into the Ring of Honor Wrestling World Championship when he defended it against The Zebra Kid. Since then, the title has been defended in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, Japan, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

On August 12th, 2006, the Ring of Honor Wrestling Pure Championship was unified with the ROH World Championship after the ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness lost to the ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson in Liverpool, England in what was billed as a title unification matchup. The match was contested under "Pure Wrestling Rules", with the stipulation  being that both titles could be lost by disqualification or by count-out. 

In 2010, the title belt with the ROH World Tag Team Championship belts, all got redesigned. The 2010 belt had an eagle with it's wings spread over a picture of the world with an ROH logo on the top of the title. This design also included various flags of different  countries. 

In 2012 the title was once again redesigned, with a new title design introduced at the December 2012 ROH internet pay-per-view Final Battle 2012. 

On July 3rd, 2013, the ROH World Championship was declared vacant for the first time since it's inception, when ROH Match Maker Nigel McGuinness stripped then-champion Jay Briscoe of the championship after he was sidelined with a storyline injury and would be unable to compete for the foreseeable future. 

In 2014, during the rivalry between Adam Cole and Jay Briscoe, Briscoe unveiled his own custom version of the title belt, which had Confederate Rebel style flag designs on it. 

In December 2017, Ring of Honor unveiled the next design of the title which debuted at that year's Final Battle. 

Later in late-2021, Ring of Honor announced it would be going on a hiatus indefinitely following that year's Final Battle PPV event. Then-ROH World Champion Bandido was supposed to wrestle Jonathan Gresham in a championship match at the Final Battle 2021 PPV until December 9th when it was announced that Bandido had tested positive for COVID-19, thus ending his participation in the scheduled match. Jay Lethal took Bandido's place against Gresham at Final Battle 2021 where Gresham defeated Lethal and won the vacated ROH World Championship, now represented by the original title design used in 2002. However, during Ring of Honor's hiatus after Final Battle 2021, Gresham and Bandido would appear in different promotions defending their respective versions of the title; Gresham with the original 2002 designed belt and Bandido with the most recently designed belt. The championship was defended on cards promoted by other companies such as longtime ROH national rival promotion Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA Wrestling), Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), the UK-based Progress Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which is considered by many fans to be the spiritual successor to Ring of Honor Wrestling. Both men even defended their respective titles with Gresham's new promotion called TERMINUS. 

On January 20th, 2022, it was announced that Bandido and Gresham would face each other in a championship unification match at ROH Supercard of Honor XV, the first official ROH event after the hiatus following Final Battle 2021. At the event, Gresham defeated Bandido to unify the ROH World Championships. Afterwards, Gresham continued to carry the original belt design while the belt carried by Bandido was shelved. 

On March 31st, 2023, a new championship design was introduced on the Countdown to ROH Supercard of Honor 2023 show, making it the sixth design in the title's history (seventh if you count Jay Briscoe's custom version of the title). 

On November 11th, 2023, All Elite Wrestling announced a round-robin style tournament called the Continental Classic Tournament, with the winner becoming the first-ever AEW Continental Crown Champion. Eddie Kingston, who held the ROH World Championship and NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, announced that he would be putting his championships on the line in the tournament and that the tournament's winner would be an American Triple Crown Champion. Subsequently, the ROH World Champion at the time of the next AEW Continental Classic Tournament will automatically be entered into the tournament. At AEW Worlds End 2023, Kingston defeated Jon Moxley in the Continental Classic Tournament Final Match, retaining the ROH World Championship and becoming the first-ever Triple Crown Champion.

Inaugural Championship Tournament (2002)

On June 22nd, 2002, Ring of Honor held the first part of a tournament to crown the inaugural ROH Champion. Sixteen wrestlers were divided into four blocks, with the winner of each block competing in a Four-Way Iron Man match on July 27th, 2002 to determine the inaugural champion. 

	Block A				Final
	Paul London	Pin
	Spanky
					Spanky
					Jody Fleisch	Pin
	Jody Fleisch
	Jonny Storm	Pin

	Block B				Final
	Christopher Daniels
	Scoot Andrews	Pin
					Christopher Daniels
					AJ Styles	Pin
	AJ Styles
	Jerry Lynn	Pin

	Block C				Final
	American Dragon
	Bio-Hazard	Sub
					American Dragon	Pin
					Doug Williams
	Doug Williams
	Jay Briscoe	Pin

	Block D				Final
	Low Ki
	Prince Nana	TKO
					Low Ki
					Amazing Red	Pin
	Amazing Red
	Xavier	Pin

Final:

Wrestler	Points
Low Ki	3
Christopher Daniels	2
Doug Williams	-1
Spanky	-1

  

WINNER: Low Ki (3 points)

TITLE REIGNS:

01. Low Ki - Won: July 27th, 2002 @ ROH Crowning a Champion in Philadelphia, PA (defeated Christopher Daniels, Spanky and Doug Williams in a four-way 60-minute Iron Man Match after the Block A, Block B, Block C and Block D ROH Championship tournament finals to become the inaugural champion)

02. Xavier - Won: September 21st, 2002 @ ROH Unscripted in Philadelphia, PA 

03. Samoa Joe - Won: March 22nd, 2003 @ ROH Night of Champions in Philadelphia, PA (After Joe defeated The Zebra Kid on May 17th, 2003, the ROH Championship was renamed the ROH World Championship)

04. Austin Aries  - Won: December 26th, 2004 @ ROH Final Battle in Philadelphia, PA (

05. CM Punk - Won: June 18th, 2005 @ ROH Death Before Dishonor III in Morristown, NJ 

06. James Gibson - Won: August 12th, 2005 @ ROH Redemption in Dayton, OH (This was a four-way elimination match also involving Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe)

07. Bryan Danielson - Won: September 17th, 2005 @ ROH Glory by Honor IV in Lake Grove, NY (Danielson unified the title with the ROH Pure Championship on August 12th, 2006 by defeating Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England)

08. Homicide - Won: December 23rd, 2006 @ ROH Final Battle in New York City, NY

09. Takeshi Morishima - Won: February 17th, 2007 @ ROH The Fifth Year Festival: Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA

10. Nigel McGuinness - Won: October 6th, 2007 @ ROH Undeniable in Edison, NJ

11. Jerry Lynn - Won: April 3rd, 2009 @ ROH Supercard of Honor IV in Houston, TX

12. Austin Aries (2) - Won: June 13th, 2009 @ ROH Manhattan Mayhem III in New York City, NY (This was a three-way elimination match, also involving Tyler Black)  

13. Tyler Black - Won: February 13th, 2010 @ ROH 8th Anniversary Special in New York City, NY

14. Roderick Strong - Won: September 11th, 2010 @ ROH Glory by Honor IX in New York City, NY (This was a No Disqualification Match with Terry Funk as the special ringside enforcer)

15. Eddie Edwards - Won: March 19th, 2011 @ ROH Manhattan Mayhem IV in New York City, NY

16. Davey Richards - Won: June 26th, 2011 @ ROH Best in the World in New York City, NY

17. Kevin Steen - Won: May 12th, 2012 @ ROH Border Wars in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

18. Jay Briscoe - Won: April 5th, 2013 @ ROH Supercard of Honor VII in New York City, NY

-- VACATED on July 3rd, 2013 (The title was vacated by ROH Match Maker Nigel McGuinness after Jay Briscoe suffered a storyline injury at the June 23rd television tapings and would not be able to compete for the foreseeable future)

19. Adam Cole - Won: September 20th, 2013 @ ROH Death Before Dishonor XI in Philadelphia, PA (defeated Michael Elgin in a tournament final to win the vacant championship),

20. Michael Elgin - Won: June 22nd, 2014 @ ROH Best in the World in Nashville TN 

21. Jay Briscoe - Won: September 6th, 2014 @ ROH All Star Extravaganza VI in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

22. Jay Lethal - Won: June 19th, 2015 @ ROH Best in the World in New York City, NY (This was a winner takes all match, also for Lethal's ROH World Television Championship)

23. Adam Cole (2) - Won: August 19th, 2016 @ ROH Death Before Dishonor XIV in Sunrise Manor, NV

24. Kyle O'Reilly - Won: December 2nd, 2016 @ ROH Final Battle in New York City, NY (This was a No Disqualification Match)

25. Adam Cole (3) - Won: January 4th, 2017 @ NJPW WrestleKingdom 11 in Tokyo, Japan (This was a New Japan Pro Wrestling event)

26. Christopher Daniels - Won: March 10th, 2017 @ ROH 15th Anniversary Show in Sunrise Manor, NV

27. Cody Rhodes - Won: June 23rd, 2017 @ ROH Best in the World in Lowell, MA

28. Dalton Castle - Won: December 15th, 2017 @ ROH Final Battle in New York City, NY

29. Jay Lethal (2) - Won: June 30th, 2018 @ Ring of Honor Wrestling TV in Fairfax, VA (This was a four-way match, also involving Cody Rhodes and Matt Taven. Aired on tape delay on July 23rd, 2018)

30. Matt Taven - Won: April 6th, 2019 @ NJPW x ROH G1 Supercard in New York City, NY (This was a three-way ladder match, also involving Marty Scurll)

31. Rush - Won: September 27th, 2019 @ ROH Death Before Dishonor XVII in Sunrise Manor, NV

32. PCO - Won: December 13th, 2019 @ ROH Final Battle in Baltimore, MD (This was a :Friday the 13th Massacre" No Disqualification match)

33. Rush (2) - Won: February 29th, 2020 @ ROH Gateway to Honor in St. Charles, MO (This was a three-way match, also involving Mark Haskins)

34. Bandido - Won: July 11th, 2021 @ ROH Best in the World in Baltimore, MD

-- VACATED on December 10th, 2021 (Title was vacated after Bandido tested positive for COVID-19)

35. Jonathan Gresham - Won: December 11th, 2021 @ ROH Final Battle in Baltimore, MD (Defeated Jay Lethal to win the vacant championship. Former champion Bandido still had the ROH World Championship title belt, while Gresham won the original ROH World Championship title belt. Gresham defeated Bandido at ROH Supercard of Honor XV to determine the Undisputed ROH World Champion. During this reign, Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor)

36. Claudio Castagnoli - Won: July 23rd, 2022 @ ROH Death Before Dishonor in Lowell, MA

37. Chris Jericho - Won: September 21st, 2022 @ AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam in Flushing, Queens, NY (This was an All Elite Wrestling event)

38. Claudio Castagnoli (2) - Won: December 10th, 2022 @ ROH Final Battle in Arlington, TX

39. Eddie Kingston - Won: September 20th, 2023 @ AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam in Flushing, Queens, NY (This was an All Elite Wrestling event. This was a Title vs. Title match, also for Kingston's NJPW Strong Openweight Championship. During this title reign, the championship became part of the American Triple Crown Championship, with Kingston defending the championship alongside the AEW Continental Crown Championship and the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship after winning the 2023 Continental Classic Tournament at AEW Worlds End 2023. Kingston would lose the AEW Continental Crown to Kazuchika Okada on the March 20th, 2024 episode of AEW Dynamite, thus dissolving the Triple Crown.)

40. Mark Briscoe - Won: April 5th, 2024 @ ROH Supercard of Honor 2024 in Philadelphia, PA 

TITLE DESIGNS:

The original version of the title, used from 2002-2004; 2004-2010; 2021-2023

The second design of the title was used in 2004

The third design was used from 2010-2012

The fourth design was used from 2012-2017

The fifth design was a custom belt made for Jay Briscoe and was used in 2014

The sixth design was used from 2017-2022

The seventh and current design has been used since 2023.