Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) has held a variety of professional wrestling tournaments competed for by wrestlers that are a part of their roster.
The NWA World Tag Team Championships tournament was held to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions after Jeff and Jerry Jarrett formed NWA:Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) to control/feature the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Tag Team Championship as their championships. AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn won the tournament to become the first NWA World Tag Team Championships in TNA.[1]
AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn were a last minute replacement for James Storm and Chris Harris who were attacked backstage.
An 8-man tournament was held to crown a #1 contender for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship which was held at the time by Ron Killings. Jeff Jarrett won the tournament and would later win the championship.[2]
The TNA Hard 10 Tournament was a hardcore tournament for a trophy that would proclaim the winner the most hardcore wrestler in TNA. It featured eight wrestlers competing in matches where a point-scoring system was used to determine the winner. The system was that 1 point was awarded for a direct hit with an object and 5 points for putting your opponent through a table, with 10 points needed to win. The only tournament was held in 2003, which was won by The Sandman.
The TNA Anarchy Alliance Tag Team Tournament was a tag team tournament held in 2003 to determine the number one contenders for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which was won by America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm).[3]
The NWA World Tag Team Championship Tournament was a tag team tournament held in 2004 in order to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions, which was won by Kid Kash and Dallas.
The NWA World Heavyweight Championship Number One Contender Tournament was a 4-man tournament held in October 2004 in order to crown new number one contender for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at TNA's first-ever monthly pay-per-view event Victory Road.[5]
The TNA X Cup Tournaments are X Division tournaments that feature various wrestlers and/or Teams from around the World. So far, there have been two Super X Cup Tournaments, one America's X Cup Tournament, and three World X Cup Tournaments.
The Fight for the Right Tournament was a tournament to determine the number one contender for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and later for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
The Paparazzi Championship Series was a tournament that began at Turning Point 2006 and involved five X Division competitors competing in a variety of matches where points are awarded for victories. These matches included limbo, Texas hold 'em, musical chairs, and a push-up contest, among others. The tournament was created to give the wrestlers airtime while also continuing the Paparazzi Productions storyline surrounding Austin Starr, Alex Shelley and Kevin Nash. Throughout the competitions, Nash kept bringing up Bob Backlund, which led up to Backlund being a guest judge at Final Resolution 2007 during the finals of the competition. Shelley defeated Starr in the finals to win a bowling trophy presented by Nash at Final Resolution 2007. The other three participants in the tournament were Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal and Senshi. Nash viciously needled the other three (especially Dutt) throughout the challenge, but kept the actual competition fair and even, always inviting the losers of each contest to "feel free to kiss the winner".
The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament was held during April and May 2008 for the vacant TNA World Tag Team Championship. It took place on TNA Impact! and at Sacrifice on May 11, 2008. It was announced on the April 24, 2008 episode of Impact! by Management Director Jim Cornette.[6] It involved twelve teams overall.
The tournament was the result of a match for the TNA X Division Championship at Final Resolution between Eric Young and Sheik Abdul Bashir ending in a controversial fashion, with Young winning the championship thanks to the referee's help. Management Director Jim Cornette stripped Young of the belt and announced the tournament to crown the new champion. The tournament final took place at Genesis.
To reinvigorate the tag team division, Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) announced on the April 23, 2009 episode of Impact! that they would be hosting a tag team tournament. The winning team would receive a trophy, a check for $100,000 and a match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship (held by Team 3D). The tournament started that same night and matches would be held over the next few weeks and TNA announced that the finals would be held at the Sacrifice pay-per-view.
TNA announced a Knockouts tag team tournament for the new TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship on the August 20, 2009 episode of TNA Impact!. Round one matches started on the August 27, 2009 episode of TNA Impact!.
On the September 3, 2009 episode of Impact!, a two-bracket one-night tournament was held to determine two competitors that would face Matt Morgan and Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at No Surrender. Sting won the first bracket, and AJ Styles won the second bracket.[7]
The TNA Championship Series took place on the Thanksgiving Day edition of Impact! on November 26, 2009. The winner of the tournament would earn himself a shot at the Championship of his own division.[8] However, the winner of the tournament, Bobby Lashley, did not receive his title match.
Participants:
The New Year's Knockout Eve Tournament took place on the December 31, 2009, edition of Impact!. The winner of the tournament would earn a shot at the TNA Women's Knockout Championship on the live three-hour Monday night edition of Impact! on January 4, 2010.[9]
The 8 Card Stud Tournament took place on February 14, 2010, at the Against All Odds pay-per-view and its winner would get to challenge the TNA World Heavyweight Champion in the main event of April's Lockdown pay-per-view.[10]
On the June 17, 2010, edition of Impact! TNA vacated the TNA World Tag Team Championship and announced a two-week-long tournament, with the winners facing The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), who were the number one contenders prior to the titles being vacated, for the titles at Victory Road.[11][12]
On the August 4, 2010, edition of TNA Xplosion, TNA announced a two-week-long tournament to determine the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Championship.
Teams:
On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact!, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered a storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings. The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10.[15][16]
On the December 9, 2010, edition of Impact! TNA vacated the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, after one half of the previous champions, Hamada, had been released by the promotion, and set up a four–team tournament to determine new champions.[17] The finals of the tournament would take place on the December 23 edition of Impact!.[18]
*Winter replaced Velvet Sky, who had been attacked backstage by Sarita.
On the January 27, 2011, edition of Impact!, TNA started a tournament to determine a new number one contender for the TNA X Division Championship, held by Kazarian. The tournament consisted of three three–way semifinal matches, taking place on the January 27, February 3 and February 10 editions of Impact!, with the finals, another three–way match, taking place at Against All Odds on February 13.[20][21][22] The finals ended with a double countout, after Jeremy and Max Buck failed to make it to the event due to travel issues.[23]
On the May 24, 2011, edition of TNA Xplosion, Desmond Wolfe was announced as the new Xplosion Commissioner.[24] His first act as commissioner was setting up a tournament exclusive to Xplosion where the winner would receive a title shot against any active champion in TNA.[25] The finals of the tournament took place at the August 9 tapings of the August 24 edition of Xplosion.[26][27]
On the June 16, 2011, edition of Impact Wrestling, TNA started a twelve-man tournament for a contract in the promotion's X Division. The finals of the tournament would take place on July 10 at Destination X.[34]
First round
Finals
On November 23, 2011, TNA announced the start of the Maximum Impact Tournament, an eight-man tournament, which would take place on Xplosion. The winner would receive a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship during TNA's tour of the United Kingdom in January 2012.[38] The finals of the tournament took place on December 13 at the tapings of the January 4, 2012, edition of Xplosion.[39] The winner, Samoa Joe, received his title shot on January 27 in Manchester, in a match taped for Xplosion, but was defeated by the defending TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Bobby Roode.[40]
On the December 15, 2011, edition of Impact Wrestling, TNA started a tag team tournament to determine the number one contenders for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, held by the team Crimson and Matt Morgan, at Genesis.[43] The pairings were, in storyline, decided by a random draw.[44]
On the June 28, 2012, episode of Impact Wrestling, TNA announced a tournament for the TNA X Division Championship, which would take place at Destination X, where Austin Aries would vacate the title for a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The tournament was preceded by four qualifying matches featuring wrestlers from the independent circuit.[45] TNA contracted wrestlers Douglas Williams, Kid Kash and Zema Ion were given automatic spots in the first round of the tournament.[46] The eighth and final spot in the tournament would be filled by the winner of a four-way between the losers of the qualifying matches.[47] At Destination X the eight wrestlers will face each other in four singles matches, with the winners advancing to an Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship.[46]
On the January 3, 2013, edition of Impact! TNA started a tournament to determine a new number one contender for the TNA X Division Championship, held by Rob Van Dam. The tournament consisted of two singles semifinal matches, taking place on the January 3 and January 10 editions of Impact!, with the finals taking place at Genesis on January 13.
The TNA Gut Check Tournament was a 4-man tournament held from May 9 thru June 2, 2013 in order to determine which TNA Gut Check competitor would compete in the Bound for Glory Series the finals of the tournament took place at Slammiversary XI.[48] Sam Shaw advanced to the finals of the tournament after Silva was no longer able to compete.
On the July 11, 2013 edition of Impact a tournament was held where the twelve Bound for Glory Series participants were randomly paired up into six tag teams. There were then three tag matches with the winning teams advancing to a six-man Gauntlet Battle Royal. Once there were two competitors left in the match, the match became a regular singles match with the winner earning 25 points in the Bound for Glory Series.
On the Destination X edition of Impact! TNA started a tournament to determine a new TNA X Division Champion, since the title was vacated after Chris Sabin traded it in for a shot at the World Championship. The tournament consisted of three three–way semifinal matches, taking place on the July 18 edition of Impact!, with the finals, another three–way match, taking place on July 25, 2013.
On October 29, 2013, TNA President Dixie Carter vacated the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after the previous champion A.J. Styles left the company with the championship title. On the October 31 edition of Impact Wrestling, Carter announced an eight-man tournament to determine a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion, that would begin on November 7. Seven of the eight men were former TNA World Heavyweight Champions including Jeff Hardy, Chris Sabin, Bobby Roode, James Storm, Kurt Angle, Austin Aries, and Samoa Joe. The eighth would be determined later in the night in a gauntlet match, which was eventually won by Magnus last eliminating Kazarian and Sting. Also later that night, Carter announced the "Wheel of Dixie" in which she would spin a wheel full of different stipulation that the competitors would compete in. The stipulations on the "Wheel of Dixie" were a Falls Count Anywhere match, a Bull Rope match, a Submission match, a Ladder match, a Full Metal Mayhem match, a Coalminer's Glove match, a Tables match, a Dixieland match, a Tuxedo match, and Last Man Standing match. The Storm/Roode match was originally a Bull Rope match but Storm asked Carter to change it to a Florida Death match, which was not on the "Wheel of Dixie", which Carter agreed to.
On the Destination X edition of Impact! TNA started a tournament to determine a new TNA X Division Champion, since the title was vacated after Austin Aries traded it in for a shot at the World Championship. The tournament consisted of three three–way semifinal matches, taking place on the July 31 edition of Impact!, with the finals, another three–way match, taking place on August 7, 2014.
On September 17, 2014 TNA Executive Director Kurt Angle announced a "Gold Rush" tournament. Which took place on September 24, 2014. Where the winners of 5 qualifying matches would advance to the main event later that night. The winner of the main event would earn a championship match against any TNA champion, at any time.
On the October 15, 2014, edition of Impact Wrestling, TNA started an eight tag team tournament to determine the number one contenders for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, held by The Wolves (Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards).
Between March 14 and March 16, 2015 episodes of Impact Wrestling a tournament was held to crown new TNA World Tag Team Champions.[49]
On the Destination X 2015 edition of Impact! TNA started a tournament to determine a new TNA X Division Champion, since the title was vacated after Rockstar Spud traded it in for a shot at the World Championship. The tournament consisted of three three–way semifinal matches, taking place on the June 10th edition of Impact!, with the finals, another three–way match, taking place on June 27, 2015.
On October 7, 2015, it was announced that a tournament would take place, after TNA World Heavyweight Champion Matt Hardy vacated the title a day prior due to a legal injunction filed by former champion Ethan Carter III. The World Title Series places 32 wrestlers into 8 groups of 4, with the first round being under a round-robin format.[50] Also, for the first time ever, the Knockouts were given an opportunity to compete for the World Heavyweight Title.[51]
Each winner in the round-robin matches is awarded 3 points, and a draw is worth 1 point for each, with each match having a 15-minute time limit. The two members of each group with the most points will advance to the final 16, where at that point the tournament switches to a single elimination format.
The title was introduced at the August 13, 2016 tapings of TNA's television program Impact Wrestling' after TNA President Billy Corgan announced that the TNA King of the Mountain Championship would be deactivated and retired in favor for the Impact Grand Championship. Corgan also announced an 8-man single elimination tournament that would feature new rules that would apply to the title. The new rules would be similar like the UFC in which each match will be three timed rounds, with a team of judges to award the win based on points, if there is no winner via pin or submission within the time limit. The final match was at 2016's Bound for Glory, where, due to injury Eddie Edwards subbed for Drew Galloway against Aron Rex to determine the inaugural champion.[52]
On November 23, 2017 it was announced after Gail Kim retired and vacated the Impact Knockouts Championship that it would be a 6-Women tournament to determine who would be the new Knockouts Champion where two triple threat matches will happen and one finals.[53][54][55][56]
The Impact Mashup Tournament was held in 2019 to determine the #1 contender for the Impact World Championship at Bound for Glory. Four qualification matches for the tournament were held on the July 19, 2019 episode of Impact Wrestling, where wrestlers were randomly paired as partners in tag team matches and the winners of the four tag team matches qualified for a fatal four-way elimination match in the main event of that episode and the participants of the winning team qualified for the #1 contender's match at Unbreakable.
A tournament was held to determine the new #1 contender for the Impact World Championship from the May 12, 2020 to June 2, 2020 episodes of Impact!.[60]
†Trey was attacked before his match and his The Rascalz teammate Wentz took his place in the finals.
Over the course of 2020, Impact Wrestling (which had been renamed from TNA in 2017) signed several female talents such as Nevaeh,[61] Tasha Steelz,[62] Deonna Purrazzo,[63] and Kimber Lee,[64] all of which were paired with already established names on the roster.[65] After months of competition between the tag teams in the Knockouts division, on October 24 at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, Madison Rayne announced that after nearly eight years of inactivity, Impact Wrestling is reviving the Knockouts Tag Team Championship.[66] It was also announced that an eight-team tournament would take place over the next two months to determine the next champions. The brackets were announced in November, with the final taking place at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view in January 2021.[67][68] At Hard To Kill, Fire 'N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) defeated Havok and Nevaeh in the tournament final to win the revived titles.
A tournament featuring mixed tag teams was held to determine the "King and Queen" at Homecoming on July 31, 2021.[71][72]
On the September 23 episode of Impact!, producer Gail Kim announced an eight-woman, one night tournament for the Knockouts Knockdown event, where the winner will earn a future shot at the Impact Knockouts Championship.[73][74]
On the September 23 episode of Impact!, Impact started a tournament to determine the new Impact X Division Champion, since the title was vacated after Josh Alexander invoked Option C to challenge for the Impact World Championship. The tournament consist of three three–way semi-final matches, with the finals, another three–way match, will taking place at Bound for Glory.[76]
On the September 30 episode of Impact!, the Impact Digital Media Championship was introduced and it was announced that an intergender tournament will be held with the inaugural champion being crowned in the final at Bound for Glory. The first round matches will air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on Impact Plus and on YouTube for Impact Ultimate Insider members, before being distributed to the public across all social media platforms 24 hours later.[81][82]
First round
Final
On October 20, 2022, after Frankie Kazarian vacated the Impact X Division Championship for a shot at the Impact World Championship it was announced that there will be an eight-man tournament to determine who will be the new Impact X Division Champion on November 18, 2022, at Impact Pay-per-view Over Drive.[87]
On August 2, 2023 a new four man tag team tournament was announced where the winners will face Subculture (Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster) (with their female valet Dani Luna in their corner) for the Impact World Tag Team Championships at Impact Pay-per-view Emergence of year 2023.[91]
The Bound for Glory Series are a tournament in which 12 wrestlers compete in a series of matches over several months to determine who receives a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound for Glory.
The Feast or Fired match is a pole match featured in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. In the match, all four ring posts have poles attached, and a briefcase hangs from each pole. The match features a large group of participants, who attempt to scale the turnbuckles and grab the cases. Each case contains a different item, either a title shot or a pink slip.
The TNA Turkey Bowl was a tournament held in 2007 and 2008 aired on the Thanksgiving night episode of TNA Impact! The tournament consisted of three preliminary three way matches. Each match featured a member of the Heavyweight Division, The X Division, and The Tag Team Division with the winner of the match going on to the finals. The winner of the finals, also a three-way match, won $25,000. The wrestler who lost in the finals was forced to put on a turkey suit.
The TNA Turkey Bowl returned with a different format in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 which aired on the Thanksgiving night episode of Impact Wrestling.
Impact One Night Only is a periodic series of PPV events held around a particular theme. This section is for annual One Night Only events.
Joker's Wild consists of seven tag team matches, where partners are picked by a random lottery. The winning teams advance to the main event, a 14-man battle royal for the chance to win a $100,000 prize.
Knockouts Knockdown is an event where current members of the TNA Knockouts Division take on female wrestlers from the independent circuit, with the winners advancing to the main event, a gauntlet battle royal where the winner will be crowned "Queen of the Knockouts."
Teams of wrestlers from around the World compete in Heavyweight, X Division, Tag Team and Knockouts Division matches, the winning team members gaining points for their respective teams. The two teams with the most points face off in the main event in a Five-on-Five Elimination tag team match to crown the winners of the TNA World Cup.
In January 2019 taping, Impact brought back the World Cup name for a tournament in partnership with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. Team Impact consisted of Sami Callihan, Eli Drake, Eddie Edwards and Fallah Bahh, and Team AAA consisted of Aero Star, El Hijo del Vikingo, Puma King and Psycho Clown. The match, which aired the February 15 Impact!, was a 4 on 4 single elimination match. The match came down to Edwards and Clown with, Clown eliminating Edwards, after Drake hit Edwards with a kendostick.
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