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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.

List of reign lengths[]

As of March 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
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
Eddie Kingston 181+ September 20, 2023 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[]

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