Inaugural World Champions of major pro wrestling promotions

#3. NWA TNA World Championship - Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock as the TNA Champion - he is actually back in the promotion now

2002 was a strange time in professional wrestling. Both WCW and ECW had gone out of business, leaving the WWE as the only major wrestling promotion in the United States. Jeff Jarrett, who had no chance of joining the WWE due to prior disgreements with Vince McMahon, decided to start his own promotion to compete with him - the beginning of Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Trying to differentiate themselves from the WWE by holding weekly PPVs, TNA decided to hold a 'Gauntlet for Gold' match to crown their first world champion. The match was very similar to WWE's Royal Rumble match, the only difference being that once it came down to two wrestlers, the match would change to a traditional 1-on-1 match.

In a match that included the likes of Jarrett, Scott Hall, R-Truth, Konnan and Rick Steiner, the final two were Malice - the former Wall in WCW, and Ken Shamrock. Shamrock would go on to beat Malice in the 1-on-1 match and become the champion. He was presented with the NWA World Championship, with TNA deciding to affiliate themselves with the NWA during this early run.

Shamrock would have a very short reign, losing the title to R-Truth before departing the company soon after. This would later influence Jarrett to build the company around himself, having multiple world title reigns which ensured that the champion stayed loyal to the promotion.