Well, you can probably tell why this article is been made…

Fresh off the heels of the announcement regarding the Digital Media Championship, now seems like the right time to make a list like this.

First introduced in the Fall of 2021, the IMPACT/TNA Digital Media Championship has seen eleven wrestlers hold the title, but which ones had a great time as champion and which ones failed to leave their mark.

This is every TNA/IMPACT Digital Media Champion ranked from Worst to Best.

#11. Tommy Dreamer

Scott D’Amore deserves a lot of credit for helping to rebuild the promotion following years of scandals and embarrassing moments for TNA throughout the 2010’s…However, Scott also made some questionable decision’s during his time and the idea of making Tommy Dreamer a champion once more is certainly one of them.

After stinking up the first half of 2023 with his feud with fellow ECW alumni Bully Ray, Dreamer would eventually set his sights on the Digital Media Championship going into that year’s Victory Road event which was emanating from Tommy’s homestate of New York. In a match where Dreamer’s in-ring career as well as the belt was on the line, ‘The Innovator of Violence’ unsurprisingly won the gold in front of his hometown.

Dreamer promised to be a fighting champion and fair play to him he actually did defend the belt, but his matches weren’t all that great plus when the bulk of your bouts happen more on the indies than on TV or PPV…That pretty much sums it up.

Nobody was asking to see the hardcore legend become a champion in 2023 and thankfully the reign ended when he lost on the preshow of Hard To Kill 2024.

#10. Rich Swann

Looking back, you have to feel bad for Rich Swann; From winning the World Title at Bound For Glory 2020 and wrestling Kenny Omega in one of the biggest matches of Swann’s career to basically being an afterthought right up until his suspension in late 2024.

Perhaps the nadir of Swann’s descension could best be seen with his time as Digital Media Champion. During a backstage segment in May of 2022, Rich got into it with then champion Matt Cardona leading to the two having a match…Which took place at Wrestling Revolver of all places and Swann became the first African American wrestler to win the title.

So what did Swann do during his title reign? Well he had the belt stolen from him by Cardona who then gave it to his friend Brian Myers, only for Swann to get the physical belt back during a preshow match at that year’s Slammiversary, he defended the belt against Matthew Rehwoldt that one time on IMPACT! and then he lost the belt to Myers in a Dot Combat Match on the preshow of Against All Odds in July.

Outside of the running joke that Rich Swann was the Digital Media Champion despite not having an active social media presence at the time; His 34 days as champion were nothing if not underwelming.

#9. Laredo Kid

Considering his time as the DMC lasted only 29-30 days, you might be surprised to see Laredo Kid ahead of Swann and Dreamer, and to be honest Laredo was pretty much a transitional champion in the grand scheme of things…But his brief time was more enjoyable compared to the names previously mentioned.

Laredo won the title after beating Crazzy Steve at the Rebellion 2024 preshow and thus became the only luchador to hold the title and first to win a championship in TNA since Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. in 2019.

His title defense against KC Navarro at the Under Siege preshow is one of the best in the belt’s history and could been seen as the match that helped to convince the higher ups in TNA to officially sign Navarro to a contract.

On the 20th Anniversary episode of IMPACT! Kid would lost the belt to A.J. Francis of First Class and….never got his rematch; Not much else to say other than it was a short reign and had a really good match during it’s time.

#8. Crazzy Steve

After a few sitdown interviews with Tom Hannifan where he revealed more about his personal life and became more unhinged by the end of it, Steve was soon given a singles push that saw him feud with Tommy Dreamer for several months before capturing the DMC at Hard To Kill’s 2024 preshow.

Steve mainly defended his belt against names like Rhino and Laredo Kid, but also defended them against PCO and Joe Hendry with the matches themselves basically being good but nothing to special. Once Scott D’Amore was ousted from TNA in Feburary of 2024, many of his favorite wrestlers almost immediately saw their stock plummet and Crazzy Steve was one of them.

Laredo would beat Steve at the aforementioned Rebellion preshow match to become the new Digital Media Champion and as of the writing of this article, Crazzy Steve has yet to resurface in TNA in any capacity.

While his reign wasn’t bad per se, you got the feeling more could’ve of been done with him as champion which why he ranks number eight on this list.

#7. PCO

The most recent champion to make this list, PCO’s time as champion is something of a mixed bag as there were a few good moments during his title reign, but there was also some bad stuff to take place as well.

In the lead up to his eventual title win, PCO was in a storyline relationship with Steph De Lander which soon saw A.J. Francis and Rich Swann of First Class getting involved and causing problems for the couple. This led to PCO and Francis fighting for the DMC and the recently revived Canadian International Heavyweight Championship in a Montreal Street Fight at Slammiversary 2024 where the former ROH star became the oldest person to win the belt at 56 years old.

Highlights from PCO’s reign as champion saw him and Steph getting married only to be interrupted by a returning Matt Cardona, he beat Matt in a Monster’s Ball match at Bound For Glory, he teamed up with Sami Callihan for a little bit and that’s pretty much it.

What stops PCO’s from going any higher is the fact he never defended the belt in the two months following his match at BFG, his title matches with Shera at Emergence and Rhino on IMPACT! were uninspiring and yes his strange shoot promo and smashing of the belt at a GCW event in January of 2025 was a low point that saw the end of the DMC as we know it.

#6. A.J. Francis

As previously stated in the article, Laredo Kid would lose the Digital Media Championship to A.J. Francis of First Class…But as it turns out it almost didn’t happen.

As the story goes, plans were made to have Rich Swann win back the DMC thus making him a two time Digital Media Title holder. However, Swann declined and suggested that A.J. should be the one to win the belt instead….And looking back at it, that was a good call by Swann.

Similar to Steph De Lander, Francis used the media aspect of the Digital Media Title to promote himself and bringing a bit more attention to the belt; From using social media platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitter to even appearing in interviews both wrestling and real sports related with the title firmly around his shoulder.

A.J. also became a double champion during his reign as he used his money and connections to reinstate the long defunct Canadian International Heavyweight Championship…Which just show happen to occur around the same time First Class was feuding with PCO.

Francis only had three defenses with the belt with one of them seeing him beat Rhino in a last second title bout on an episode of IMPACT, another seeing him defeat someone named Alex Misery and the last one was against Real1 (aka the former Enzo A’more in WWE).

He would lost both titles to PCO at Slammiversary 2024 and began focusing his attention on the world title and tag team titles. While his use of social media is what gets A.J. so high on this list, the depth of his opponents during his title reign just prevents him from making the top five.

#5. Kenny King

If you’ve managed to watch the video up to this point and wonder why I’ve been calling the Digital Media Championship the DMC, we you can thank former TNA X Division Champion Kenny King for that.

After his time with Honor No More came to a close and his feud with Speedball Mike Bailey wrapped up, Kenny would soon take up-and-coming wrestler, Sheldon Jean under his watch and soon got into the crosshairs of rising star and then Digital Media Champion, Joe Hendry.

When Hendry made a parody video surrounding Kenny’s previous line of business combined with the fans and staff members making fun of him for it, the decision was made to have Hendry defend the title against King on the Countdown to Slammiversary 2023 event.

Considering many of Hendry’s matches with the belt saw him embarrass his opponents with parody songs and soundly defeat them inside in the ring, many expect King to be another name beaten by Scotland’s favorite wrestler…So you can only imagine how shocking it was to see Kenny King beat Hendry to become the brand new Digital Media Champion…or DMC as both King and Jean would constantly repeat during interviews.

For 55 days, King would defend the belt against names like Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura, he beat New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Yoshinobu Kanemaru in TNA’s second cross promotional event and he even got a surprisingly good match out of the company’s resident comedy wrestler, Johnny Swinger at the Emergence pay-per-view.

Things came to an end when Tommy Dreamer challenged Kenny for the belt at Victory Road with Dreamer’s career at stake, but we’ve already talked about that. Although he never used social media to promote himself while he was champion and he would be granted his release not long after dropping the belt, his matches and the fact many referred to the belt as the DMC even after he lost the title is enough for Kenny King to make high on this list.

#4. Matt Cardona

At first glance, Matt Cardona should be an easy pick for the top three considering it’s his usage of social media that allowed the former Zack Ryder to become a popular name amongst the fans…Unfortunately that’s not exactly what happened.

After turning heel and winning the Digital Media Championship on the Feburary 3rd 2022 edition of IMPACT, Cardona would join forces with real life wife Chelsea Green (who also would turn heel a few months later) and former tag partner Brian Myers to briefly form the Major Players.

While that team didn’t due much following a injury (more on that in a little bit), Cardona’s time as Digital Media Champion saw him defend the belt against Jordynne Grace, Zicky Dice, Guido of the Full Bloodied Italians and a few others. Cardona also has the distinction of being in the first ever Dotcombat match (a signature bout for the DMC).

Rich Swann would go on to defeat Cardona for the Digital Media Title, but a rematch didn’t happen right away due to Matt suffering a torn bicep following a match at GCW…With a reign that only lasted 127 days, Cardona managed to pack a lot of memorable moments and some good title defenses along the way.

#3. Jordynne Grace

The very first Digital Media Champion and the only female to win the title, Jordynne Grace had the arduous task of making the belt feel like something other wrestlers should go after…and needless to say, she did pretty darn well.

Upon winning the title in a five minute multi person match at the 2021 Bound For Glory preshow, the Juggernaut wasted no time in proving herself as she battled everyone from John Skyler to Chelsea Green to Lady Frost to Kiera Hogan.

Jordynne also made history during her time with the belt as she not only took part in the first ever Knockouts Ultimate X match at Hard To Kill 2022, but she also fought Matt Cardona in the inaugural Dotcombat match that we mentioned before.

Speaking of Cardona, the former United States and Intercontinental Champion defeated Jordynne to win the Digital Media Championship leading to a series of matches that saw the former champion fail to recapture the gold.

In spite of how things ultimately ended with the DMC, Jordynne Grace was an excellent choice to be the first champion and further proved why she was one of the best in TNA Wrestling.

#2. Brian Myers

Well if Matt Cardona isn’t making into the top tier of this list, it might as well be his best friend and long time tag team partner Brian Myers.

Following his win over Rich Swann at the 2022 Countdown to Against All Odds, Myers went on what is easily the best singles run of his entire pro wrestling career as held the belt for 113 days and in doing so became a highlight of the company’s midcard division.

From reuniting with Matt Cardona and briefly rekindling his feud with W Morrissey (aka Big Bill in AEW) to the overall amount of swagger and confidence he showed while being champion, Brian Myers felt more than comfortable defending the Digital Media Championship.

The names that Myers beat during his time as champion range from lesser known names like Aiden Prince to more established competitors like Frankie Kazarian, Crazzy Steve, Black Taurus and Dirty Dango, but perhaps his most memorable rivalry during this time would have to be against Indian wrestler Bhupinder Gujjar.

After ending the younger wrestlers undefeated streak at Countdown to Emergence 2022, their feud persisted until it came to a violent conclusion on the September 22nd edition of IMPACT when Myers retain the gold in a ladder match, which is regarded by many fans as the best match to be fought for the Digital Media Championship in the belt’s history.

While Myers usually doesn’t get the credit for the work he does both in and outside of the ring, his time as Digital Media Champion is one of the best but thankfully the next person to hold the title would do an ever better job as champion, which leads me to…

#1. Joe Hendry

In terms of a wrestler using media promote themselves, Joe Hendry has certainly done that with the early signs of Hendry Mania being seen during his time as Digital Media Champion.

After beating Brian Myers on the October 22nd edition of IMPACT, Hendry would take his career to the next level and in the process elevate the DMC in a way that all the other champions after him failed to do.

For 266 days (the longest reign in the belt’s history btw), Hendry defended the belt in almost every promotion he competed at the time with a whopping 16 title defenses under his belt (the most defenses of the DMC of all time) and he also defended the belt in the main event of an episode of IMPACT which is the first and only time that’s ever happened.

Hendry defended the belt against lower tier names like Yuya Uemura and Sheldon Jean to more established wrestlers like Shera, Eddie Edwards, Dirty Dango, Brian Myers, Matt Cardona and he even got former Impact World Champion Moose to fight for the DMC not once but twice in early 2023.

Hendry also continued to make his parody videos which included hits like ‘Dancing Moose’, ‘Edge’s Bitch’ and ‘Stripper Kenny’ all of which the crowds enjoyed to no end and helped to make the Scotish born wrestler even more over with the fans.

While his reign ended at the hands of Kenny King at the Slammiversary 2023 preshow, his time as champion was a big step in turning Joe Hendry into a rising star months before he became a global wrestling phenomenon in 2024.

An historical reign that perfectly balanced social media and professional wrestling with the namesake belt, is what makes Joe Hendry the Greatest Digital Media Champion of all time.

Do you agree or disagree with my list? Who do you think was the best and worst Digital Media Champion in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling? Let me know in the comments section.

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