ROH World Championship/Champion history
The following champion history features the ROH World Championship .
Champion history [ ]
Wrestler:
Times:
Date:
Location:
Notes:
Defences:
Low Ki
1
July 27, 2002
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Defeated Christopher Daniels , Spanky and Doug Williams in a four-way 60 minute iron Man match to become the first ROH Champion at Crowning a Champion .
1
Xavier
1
September 21, 2002
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Won the title at Unscripted .
4
Samoa Joe
1
March 22, 2003
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Won the title at ROH Night of Champions . Became the ROH World Championship on May 17, 2003 after Joe defeated The Zebra Kid at Frontiers of Honor in London, England.
29
Austin Aries
1
December 26, 2004
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Won the title at Final Battle 2004 .
16
CM Punk
1
June 18, 2005
Morristown, New Jersey
Won the title at ROH Death before Dishonor III .
16
James Gibson
1
August 12, 2005
Dayton, Ohio
Won the title in a four-way elimination match at Redemption , also featuring Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.
4
Bryan Danielson
1
September 17, 2005
Long Island, New York
Won the title at Glory by Honor IV . Danielson unified the World title with the ROH Pure Championship on August 12, 2006 by defeating Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England.
38
Homicide
1
December 23, 2006
Manhattan, New York
Won the title at Final Battle 2006 .
3
Takeshi Morishima
1
February 17, 2007
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Won the title at Fifth Year Festival: Philly .
20
Nigel McGuinness
1
October 6 , 2007
Edison, New Jersey
Won the title at Undeniable .
38
Jerry Lynn
1
April 3, 2009
Houston, Texas
Won the title at Supercard of Honor IV .
6
Austin Aries
2
June 13, 2009
Manhattan, New York
Won the title at Manhattan Mayhem III .
13
Tyler Black
1
February 13, 2010
New York City, New York
Won the title at ROH 8th Anniversary Show .
7
Roderick Strong
1
September 11, 2010
New York City, New York
Won at ROH Glory by Honor IX .
5
Eddie Edwards
1
March 19, 2011
New York City, New York
Won at ROH Manhattan Mayhem IV .
3
Davey Richards
1
June 26, 2011
New York City, New York
Won at ROH Best in the World 2011 .
10
Kevin Steen
1
May 12, 2012
Toronto, Ontario
Won at ROH Border Wars 2012 .
20
Jay Briscoe
1
April 5, 2013
New York City, New York
Won at ROH Supercard of Honor VII .
6
Vacated
-
July 3, 2013
-
Title was vacated after Briscoe suffered a storyline injury.
-
Adam Cole
1
September 20, 2013
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Won at ROH Death Before Dishonor XI .
13
Michael Elgin
1
June 22, 2014
Nashville, Tennessee
Won at ROH Best In The World 2014 .
7
Jay Briscoe
2
September 6, 2014
Toronto, Ontario
Won at ROH All Star Extravaganza VI .
13
Jay Lethal
1
June 19, 2015
New York City , New York
Won at ROH Best In The World 2015 . This match was also for Lethal's ROH World Television Championship .
12
Adam Cole
2
August 12, 2016
Las Vegas, Nevada
Won at ROH Death Before Dishonor XIV .
3
Kyle O'Reilly
1
December 2, 2016
New York ,New York City
Won at ROH Final Battle 2016 .
1
Adam Cole
3
January 4, 2017
Tokyo
Won at Wrestle Kingdom XI .
3
Christopher Daniels
1
March 10, 2017
Las Vegas, Nevada
Won at ROH 15th Anniversary Show .
8
Cody
1
June 23, 2017
Lowell, Massachusetts
Won at Best in the World '17 .
16
Dalton Castle
1
December 15, 2017
New York City, New York
Won at ROH Final Battle 2017 .
7
Jay Lethal
2
June 30, 2018
Fairfax, Virginia
Won at Ring of Honor in a Fatal four way match also involving Matt Taven and Cody.
13
Matt Taven
1
April 6, 2019
New York City, New York
Won at ROH-NJPW G1 Supercard 2019 in a Triple Threat Ladder match also involving Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll .
4
Rush
1
September 27, 2019
Las Vegas, Nevada
Won at ROH Death Before Dishonor XVII .
2
PCO
1
December 13, 2019
Baltimore, Maryland
Won at ROH Final Battle 2019 .
1
Rush
2
February 29, 2020
St. Charles, Missouri
Won at ROH Gateway To Honor 2020 .
3
Bandido
1
July 11, 2021
Baltimore, Maryland
Won at ROH Best in the World 2021 .
4
Vacated
-
December 10, 2021
-
Title was vacated after Bandido could not wrestle due to Covid.
-
Jonathan Gresham
1
December 11, 2021
Baltimore, Maryland
Won at Final Battle 2021 .
18
Claudio Castagnoli
1
July 23, 2022
Lowell, Massachusetts
Won at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 .
4
Chris Jericho
1
September 21, 2022
Queens, New York
Won on AEW Dynamite .
6
Claudio Castagnoli
2
December 10, 2022
Arlington, Texas
Won at ROH Final Battle 2022 .
10
Eddie Kingston
1
September 20, 2023
Queens, New York
Won on AEW Dynamite in a title vs. title match, where Kingston's NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship was also on the line.
Mark Briscoe
1
April 5, 2024
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
List of reign lengths [ ]
As of April 19, 2024.
Wrestler
Days Held
Date Won
Date Lost
Samoa Joe
645
March 22, 2003
December 26, 2004
Nigel McGuinness
545
October 6 , 2007
April 3, 2009
Rush (2)
498
February 29, 2020
July 11, 2021
Bryan Danielson
462
September 17, 2005
December 23, 2006
Jay Lethal
427
June 19, 2015
August 29, 2016
Kevin Steen
328
May 12, 2012
April 5, 2013
Davey Richards
321
June 26, 2011
May 12, 2012
Jay Briscoe (2)
286
September 6, 2014
June 19, 2015
Claudio Castagnoli (2)
282
December 10, 2022
September 20, 2023
Jay Lethal (2)
280
June 30, 2018
April 6, 2019
Adam Cole
275
September 20, 2013
June 22, 2014
Austin Aries (2)
245
June 13, 2009
February 13, 2010
Takeshi Morishima
231
February 17, 2007
October 6 , 2007
Jonathan Gresham
224
December 11, 2021
July 23, 2022
Tyler Black
210
February 13, 2010
September 11, 2010
Eddie Kingston
198
September 20, 2023
April 5, 2024
Dalton Castle
197
December 15, 2017
June 30, 2018
Roderick Strong
189
September 11, 2010
March 19, 2011
Xavier
182
September 21, 2002
March 22, 2003
Cody
175
June 23, 2017
December 15, 2017
Austin Aries
174
December 26, 2004
June 18, 2005
Matt Taven
174
April 6, 2019
September 27, 2019
Bandido
152
July 11, 2021
December 11, 2021
Adam Cole (2)
122
August 12, 2016
December 2, 2016
Christopher Daniels
107
March 10, 2017
June 23, 2017
Eddie Edwards
99
March 19, 2011
June 26, 2011
Jay Briscoe
89
April 5, 2013
July 3, 2013
Chris Jericho
80
September 21, 2022
December 10, 2022
PCO
79
December 13, 2019
February 29, 2020
Rush
77
September 27, 2019
December 13, 2019
Michael Elgin
76
June 22, 2014
September 6, 2014
Jerry Lynn
71
April 3, 2009
June 13, 2009
Adam Cole (3)
65
January 4, 2017
March 10, 2017
Claudio Castagnoli
60
July 23, 2022
September 21, 2022
Low Ki
56
July 27, 2002
September 21, 2002
Homicide
56
December 23, 2006
February 17, 2007
CM Punk
55
June 18, 2005
August 12, 2005
James Gibson
36
August 12, 2005
September 17, 2005
Kyle O'Reilly
33
December 2, 2016
January 4, 2017
Mark Briscoe
14+
April 5, 2024
Current Champion
Trivia [ ]
Takeshi Morishima is the largest ROH World Champion to date at 6 ft 3 in (190 cm) and 308 lbs (140 kg)
Low Ki is the smallest ROH World Champion to date at 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) and 180 lbs (82 kg)
Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness have had the most title defenses to date with 39 (33 wins, 2 losses, 3 time limit draws and 1 double disqualification for Danielson and 34 wins, 4 losses and 1 time limit draw for McGuinness)
One of Bryan Danielson's losses was a count out loss to Nigel McGuinness. Since the ROH World Title doesn't change hands on a count out, he kept the title. The other was when he lost the title to Homicide .
McGuinness lost three times by disqualification. This makes him the champion with more disqualification losses to date. The fourth loss was when he dropped the belt to Jerry Lynn .
Only four champions to date have gone to 60 minute time limit draws.
Nigel McGuinness also has gone to a time limit draw that was officially announced as a 60-minutes time limit draw, against Tyler Black. By the way, ROH Wrestling later announced that that was a time keeper's mistake, as the match ended shortly after the 45 minutes mark.
Low Ki, Xavier , Samoa Joe, Austin Aries , James Gibson , Takeshi Morishima and Jerry Lynn all won the title in under one year following their debuts (Low Ki and Xavier both won the title during the first year of Ring of Honor's existence).
Takeshi Morishima holds the record for shortest amount of time in ROH before winning the World Title, winning the title in only his second match in the promotion.
Bryan Danielson is the only person to ever hold the ROH World title while also holding another ROH title (as World Champion he defeated Nigel McGuinness to win, and unify, the ROH Pure Championship on August 12, 2006. On August 25 he officially retired the Pure Title before returning the physical belt back to McGuinness)
To date, Austin Aries holds the record for defending the title in the most countries. Besides defending it in the United States on a regular basis, he also defended in these countries:
Canada: defeating Kevin Steen in Montreal, Quebec in January 22, 2005
Switzerland: defeating Marc Roudin in Weesen, Switzerland on March 12, 2005
Austria: defeating Are$ and Steve Douglas in Krems, Austria on March 13, 2005.
Mexico: defeating Super Crazy and Ricky Marvin in Tulancingo, Mexico on May 15, 2005
Low Ki is the youngest ROH World Champion to date, as he won the title at 23 years of age.
PCO is the oldest ROH World Champion to date, as he won the title at 51 years of age.
External links [ ]