The Impact Grand Championship was introduced at the August 13, 2016, tapings of Impact Wrestling, after then-TNA President Billy Corgan announced that the TNA King of the Mountain Championship would be deactivated and retired in favor for the new championship. Corgan also announced an eight-man single elimination tournament that would feature new rules that would apply to the title. The new rules would be similar to how bouts were contested in professional wrestling in Europe in which each match would consist of three timed rounds, with a team of judges to determine the outcome based on points, if there is no winner via pin or submission within the time limit. The final match of the tournament took place on October 2 at Bound for Glory, with Aron Rex becoming the inaugural champion by defeating Eddie Edwards (replacement for the legitimately injured Drew Galloway).
Results[]
| Quarter-finals
TV – Impact Wrestling |
Semi-finals
TV – Impact Wrestling |
Final
PPV – Bound for Glory |
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| Braxton Sutter | 06:43 | |||||||||||||
| Drew Galloway | Sub | |||||||||||||
| Drew Galloway | Split | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Edwards | 09:00 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Edwards | Sub | |||||||||||||
| Mahabali Shera | 06:53 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Edwards † | 15:00 | |||||||||||||
| Aron Rex | Split | |||||||||||||
| Aron Rex | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Trevor Lee | 04:55 | |||||||||||||
| Aron Rex | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Eli Drake | 08:41 | |||||||||||||
| Jessie Godderz | 08:14 | |||||||||||||
| Eli Drake | Pin | |||||||||||||
† Edwards replaced Drew Galloway, who was legitimately injured before the finals.