Being a triple crown winner in pro wrestling puts you in some elite company. To become one of these, a wrestler must win three major titles for their promotion. Traditionally, that means they win the top championship, a mid-card belt, and some tag team gold. It's pretty rarified air.
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For example, WWE has only 31 triple crown winners despite being around for several decades. WCW only had nine of these stars and ECW had a mere three. TNA/Impact Wrestling has been around for nearly 20 years now. They've had a handful of talented wrestlers who managed to pull off this impressive feat.
8 Eric Young
This has to be the most surprising triple crown achievement in Impact Wrestling history. Eric Young started as a lesser member of Team Canada before branching out and finding popularity as something of a comedy act. He was always a solid wrestler but his character never felt like one who would be the top champion.
Young's first title run was as an NWA Tag Team Champion alongside Bobby Roode in 2004. He later added a TNA Tag Title run with Kaz. In late 2008, Young picked up an X Division Championship. The biggest shock came in 2014 when he dethroned Magnus to become TNA World Champion. The reign only lasted 70 days but he still did it.
7 Eddie Edwards
It feels like a lot of fans forget how consistent Eddie Edwards ended up becoming for Impact Wrestling. He shined there for several years during the 2010s, even though it wasn't the best time period for the company. Edwards has found lots of success in most places where he goes.
In fact, Edwards actually also made history as the first triple crown winner in Ring of Honor history. For Impact, he and Davey Richards captured the TNA Tag Team Titles in 2014. He added two X Division title reigns in mid-2016 before winning the biggest championship in October of that year.
6 Austin Aries
As of 2020, nobody really wants anything to do with Austin Aries. He has consistently said negative things on social media and a lot of his actions have caused people to pretty much cancel him. As a competitor, he had some incredible highs that include a great run in Ring of Honor and a stunning rise to the top of TNA.
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For starters, he was an X Division Champion in 2011 and became a hugely popular performer. He was the first man to invoke the "Option C" concept where he gave up the X Divison Title for a shot at the TNA World Championship. Aries succeeded at Destination X 2012 in one of the company's greatest moments. He completed the triple crown by winning the Tag Titles with Bobby Roode in 2013.
5 Chris Sabin
Along with Eric Young, Chris Sabin has to be the other surprising member of this exclusive club. It's not that Sabin isn't great. He was a top-tier performer for the company for as long as he was around. It just always seemed like he would be stuck away from the heavyweight division.
He started early, with the first of his record eight X Division Title reigns coming in 2003. Sabin was a staple there but moved into the tag team world and won gold alongside Alex Shelley as the Motor City Machine Guns in 2010. After Shelley left the company, Sabin shocked the world in 2013 by beating Bully Ray to become World Champion, though the reign only lasted 28 days.
4 Abyss
If you had to construct a TNA Mount Rushmore, Abyss would have to be on it. Nobody defined TNA more than he did and he was a valuable member of the roster for as long as anyone can remember. His first taste of gold came in 2004 when he won the NWA Tag Team Titles alongside AJ Styles.
Next, he added the big one. At Genesis in 2006, he won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title from Sting. Unfortunately, he won it by DQ and it's often forgotten about. Still, Abyss remained loyal to TNA and scored an X Division Title reign coming in 2011.
3 Samoa Joe
As soon as he arrived in TNA, Samoa Joe felt like something truly special. He had a lengthy undefeated streak and dominated at every turn. There was nobody else in all of wrestling quite like him. He won the X Division Championship in late 2005 for his first piece of gold. He'd go on to hold that title five times.
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Joe's road to his other titles were less straightforward. He held the TNA Tag Team Titles with no partner after dethroning Team 3D for them and then lost them in a singles match. The TNA World Title seemed like his destiny but TNA took forever to get it to him. He finally won it in 2008. Disappointingly, they never gave him the top title again.
2 Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle's debut in TNA was a massive deal. He was supposed to be the guy who turned the company into a true threat for WWE. That never happened but Angle is in the conversation for the most decorated athlete in TNA history.
Not surprisingly, Angle's first championship was the TNA World Title. He was the inaugural champion and scored the win in May 2007. Within 92 days, Angle set a record by adding the other two titles to become the fastest triple crown winner. At Hard Justice, Angle beat Joe in a match where every title was on the line. That meant Angle immediately held every qualifiable title at once.
1 AJ Styles
Nothing against what Kurt Angle accomplished but nobody other than AJ Styles could top this spot. There are a handful of reasons. To start, he was the first triple crown winner. Styles won the X Division Title in June 2002, the Tag Team Titles a few weeks later, and the NWA World Title the following June.
To add to it, Styles is the only man to have won every possible triple crown title. That means the World and Tag Titles under both the TNA and NWA names. Styles also won each triple crown championship a whopping five times. He is TNA's G.O.A.T.
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