List of ROH World Champions

Current champion Jay Lethal

The ROH World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship owned and copyrighted by Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion. The championship was created and debuted on July 27, 2002 at ROH's Crowning a Champion event. Originally called the ROH Championship, the title was renamed to the ROH World Heavyweight Championship in May 2003 after the title was defended outside the United States for the first time—earlier that month, then-champion Samoa Joe had defeated The Zebra Kid in London, England at the Frontiers Of Honor event co-promoted with the FWA. On August 12, 2006, the ROH World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the ROH Pure Championship after then-champion Bryan Danielson defeated ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England. The Pure Championship was deactivated after this match.

ROH World Heavyweight Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in scripted rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the various competitors, which cast them as villains and heroes. Some reigns were held by champions using a ring name, while others used their real name. Reigns that were won on pay-per-view events aired on tape delay up to weeks or months apart. Reigns that were won at live events were released on DVD. The inaugural champion was Low Ki, whom ROH recognized to have become the champion after defeating Christopher Daniels, Spanky, and Doug Williams in a Four Way 60-minute Iron Man match on July 27, 2002 at ROH's Crowning a Champion event. As of June 2024, Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe share the record for most reigns, with two. As of June 2024, Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness have the most defenses, with 38; Low Ki has the least, with 1. At days, Samoa Joe's reign is the longest in the title's history. The current champion is Jay Lethal in his first reign. Overall, there have been 22 reigns among 20 wrestlers with one vacancy.

Title history

Names

Name	Years
ROH Championship	2002 – May 2003
ROH World Championship	May 2003 – present

Reigns

No.	Wrestlers	Reign	Date	Days held	Location	Successful defenses	Event	Notes
1	Low Ki	1	July 27, 2002		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1	Crowning a Champion	Low Ki defeated Christopher Daniels, Spanky, and Doug Williams in a Four-Way 60-minute Iron Man match to become the inaugural champion.
2	Xavier	1	September 21, 2002		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	4	Unscripted
3	Samoa Joe	1	March 22, 2003		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	29	Night of Champions	After Joe defeated The Zebra Kid on May 17, 2003, in London, England, the ROH Championship was renamed the ROH World Championship.
4	Austin Aries	1	December 26, 2004		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	16	Final Battle 2004
5	CM Punk	1	June 18, 2005		Morristown, New Jersey	4	Death Before Dishonor III
6	James Gibson	1	August 12, 2005		Dayton, Ohio	4	Redemption	This was a four-way elimination match also involving Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe.
7	Bryan Danielson	1	September 17, 2005		Lake Grove, New York	38	Glory by Honor IV	Danielson unified the title with the ROH Pure Championship on August 12, 2006 by defeating Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England.
8	Homicide	1	December 23, 2006		New York, New York	3	Final Battle 2006
9	Takeshi Morishima	1	February 17, 2007		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	20	Fifth Year Festival: Philly
10	Nigel McGuinness	1	October 6, 2007		Edison, New Jersey	38	Undeniable
11	Jerry Lynn	1	April 3, 2009		Houston, Texas	6	Supercard of Honor IV
12	Austin Aries	2	June 13, 2009		New York, New York	13	Manhattan Mayhem III	This was a Three-Way Elimination match also involving Tyler Black.
13	Tyler Black	1	February 13, 2010		New York, New York	7	8th Anniversary Show
14	Roderick Strong	1	September 11, 2010		New York, New York	5	Glory By Honor IX	This was a No Disqualification match with Terry Funk as the ringside enforcer.
15	Eddie Edwards	1	March 19, 2011		New York, New York	3	Manhattan Mayhem IV	Became the first ROH Triple Crown Champion.
16	Davey Richards	1	June 26, 2011		New York, New York	10	Best in the World 2011
17	Kevin Steen	1	May 12, 2012		Toronto, Ontario	18	Border Wars
18	Jay Briscoe	1	April 5, 2013		New York, New York	6	Supercard of Honor VII
—	Vacated	—	July 3, 2013	—	—	N/A	N/A	Title vacated by ROH Match Maker Nigel McGuinness after Jay Briscoe suffered a storyline injury at the June 23 television tapings and would not be able to compete in ROH for the foreseeable future.
19	Adam Cole	1	September 20, 2013		Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	13	Death Before Dishonor XI	Defeated Michael Elgin in a tournament final.
20	Michael Elgin	1	June 22, 2014		Nashville, Tennessee	7	Best in the World 2014
21	Jay Briscoe	2	September 6, 2014		Toronto, Ontario	13	All Star Extravaganza 6
22	Jay Lethal	1	June 19, 2015	+	New York, New York	22	Best in the World 2015	This was a Winner Take All match also for Lethal's ROH World Television Championship.

List of combined reigns

File:A-U-S-T-I-N ARIES-2.png

Austin Aries, two-time ROH World Champion who shares the record for most reigns with Jay Briscoe

As of June 29, 2024.

†	Indicates the current champion

Rank	Wrestler	No. of reigns	Combined defenses	Combined days
1	Samoa Joe	1	29
2	Nigel McGuinness	1	38
3	Bryan Danielson	1	38
4	Austin Aries	2	29
5	Jay Briscoe	2	19
6	Jay Lethal †	1	22	+
7	Kevin Steen	1	20
8	Davey Richards	1	10
9	Adam Cole	1	13
10	Takeshi Morishima	1	20
11	Tyler Black	1	7
12	Roderick Strong	1	5
13	Xavier	1	4
14	Eddie Edwards	1	3
15	Michael Elgin	1	7
16	Jerry Lynn	1	6
17	Homicide	1	3
	Low Ki	1	1
19	CM Punk	1	4
20	James Gibson	1	4

Notes

1.^ – This event was a live event that was later released on DVD.

2.^ – This event was a pay-per-view that later aired on tape delay.

3.^ – Each reign is ranked highest to lowest; reigns with the exact number mean they are tied for that certain rank.

References

General

Specific

External links

• ROH Wrestling.com