New Champion Crowned on Impact

This Thursday night on Impact Wrestling, Kenny King defeated Rob Van Dam in singles competition, with the X-Division title on the line! This is King’s first championship reign since joining TNA on July 5th of 2012.

The road to gold has not been an easy one for the young champion. Before coming to TNA, King had made an agreement with former employer, Ring of Honor, that while he could negotiate with other companies and weight his options, he would not wrestle for any other promotion without the consent of ROH. His July appearance on Impact Wrestling was received with a lot of heat from ROH management, as well as several of his former colleagues.

After suffering several losses, despite a generally positive reaction from TNA fans, King began his most recent program with former X-Division Champion, Rob Van Dam. The angle would see the young wrestler “turn heel”, cheating and manipulating his way to several victories, but would ultimately come up short in his quest to become champion not once, but two times. This past week on Impact Wrestling, Van Dam offered him yet a third opportunity at the gold, with the stipulation that if King lost a third time, he would be banned permanently from TNA’s X-Division, and would never again get a shot at the title.