Evolve World Championship
| Evolve World Championship | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Drew Galloway, the current Evolve World Champion | |||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Drew Galloway | ||||||||||||||||
| Date won | August 8, 2014[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date established | September 8, 2012[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Promotion |
Evolve Dragon Gate USA | ||||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||
|
Evolve Championship[3] | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The Evolve World Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Evolve promotion. It was introduced as the Evolve Championship. The inaugural champion was crowned on April 5, 2013, when AR Fox defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an eight-man tournament.[3] The championship was renamed the Evolve World Championship on January 9, 2015, at the Evolve 36 iPPV, following multiple successful international championship defenses by Drew Galloway.[6]
Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been three reigns shared among three wrestlers. Drew Galloway is the current champion in his first reign.[1]
History
Evolve was founded in 2009 by Dragon Gate USA booker Gabe Sapolsky, Full Impact Pro (FIP) owner Sal Hamaoui and independent wrestler Davey Richards and held its first event on January 16, 2010.[7][8] Originally, Evolve had no championships, instead putting emphasis on each wrestler's win/loss record.[9] On November 25, 2011, Evolve and Dragon Gate USA announced the unification of the two promotions, which would result in Evolve recognizing the Open the Freedom Gate and Open the United Gate Championships as its top two titles.[10] However, on September 8, 2012, Evolve announced that the promotion would be introducing its first own title, the Evolve Championship.[2] The title was defended outside of the United States for the first time on August 29, 2014, when champion Drew Galloway retained against Johnny Moss at a British Championship Wrestling (BCW) event in Kilmarnock, Scotland.[11] Following multiple successful international championship defenses by Galloway, the title was renamed Evolve World Championship on January 9, 2015, at Evolve 36.[6]
Championship tournament
On February 8, 2013, Evolve announced that the inaugural Evolve Champion would be determined in a single-elimination tournament on April 5, 2013.[9] Based on their win/loss records, number one seed Chuck Taylor and number two seed Ricochet earned automatic spots in the semifinals of the tournament, while number three and four seeds AR Fox and Jon Davis earned spots in the first round of the tournament.[12] The second first round match was a four-way match made up of Rich Swann, Samuray del Sol, Sami Callihan and Jigsaw, seeds five to eight, respectively.[12] The entire tournament took place during the Evolve 19 internet pay-per-view (iPPV) in Secaucus, New Jersey. In their first round matches, AR Fox advanced with a disqualification win over Jon Davis, while Sami Callihan submitted Samuray del Sol to win the four-way match.[3] In the semifinals, both the number one and number two seeds were eliminated, when Callihan submitted Chuck Taylor and Fox pinned Ricochet.[3] In the end, Fox pinned Callihan in the finals to win the tournament and become the inaugural Evolve Champion.[3]
| First round | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| 1 | Chuck Taylor | Sub | |||||||||||
| 7 | Sami Callihan | 8:37[13] | |||||||||||
| 5 6 8 |
Rich Swann Samuray del Sol Jigsaw |
Sub | |||||||||||
| 7 | Sami Callihan | [13] | |||||||||||
| 7 | Sami Callihan | Pin | |||||||||||
| 3 | AR Fox | 19:11[13] | |||||||||||
| 2 | Ricochet | Pin | |||||||||||
| 3 | AR Fox | 12:54[13] | |||||||||||
| 3 | AR Fox | DQ | |||||||||||
| 4 | Jon Davis | [13] | |||||||||||
Title history
Names
| Name | Years |
|---|---|
| Evolve Championship | April 2013 – January 2015 |
| Evolve World Championship | January 2015 – present |
Reigns
| # | Order in reign history |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific wrestler listed |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won |
| — | Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign |
| + | Indicates the current reign is changing daily |
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Event | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AR Fox | 1 | April 5, 2013 | 324 | Secaucus, New Jersey | Evolve 19 | Fox defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an eight-man tournament to become the inaugural champion. | [3] |
| 2 | Chris Hero | 1 | February 23, 2014 | 166 | Brooklyn, New York | Way of the Ronin 2014 | [14] | |
| 3 | Drew Galloway | 1 | August 8, 2014 | 245+ | Tampa, Florida | Evolve 31 | Title renamed Evolve World Championship on January 9, 2015. | [1] |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Radican, Sean (August 8, 2014). "Radican's iPPV report - Evolve 31 in Ybor City, Fla.: Galloway/McIntyre captures Evolve Title from Hero, plus Sydal/Bourne vs. Gargano". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Radican, Sean (September 8, 2012). "Radican's Evolve 17 iPPV report - Virtual time coverage from Voorhees, N.J.". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Radican, Sean (April 9, 2013). "Radican's Evolve 19 iPPV blog 4/5: First Evolve champion crowned in Tournament Finals, Young Bucks vs. SSB (Updated w/complete review)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ "Drew McIntyre". WWE. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
- ↑ "'The People's Choice' A.R. Fox". Combat Zone Wrestling. Archived from the original on May 31, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Trinfo, Richard (January 9, 2015). "Evolve 36 report: Strong versus Galloway; Gargano faces a swerve; Ronin returns tomorrow night; and more". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
- ↑ Mehaffy, Gary (November 9, 2009). "Gabe Sapolsky interview on Dragon Gate, Evolve". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ Radican, Sean (February 16, 2010). "Radican's Evolve DVD Review Series: Evolve 1 - Richards vs. Ibushi, Sawa vs. TJP". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Caldwell, James (February 8, 2013). "Evolve News: Evolve Title tourney seeds, plus fundamental changes to the promotion announced". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ "Evolve evolves -- now unified with DGUSA". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. November 25, 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ "9.03.14". Dragon Gate USA. September 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Caldwell, James (February 8, 2013). "Evolve News: Full Evolve Title tournament announced". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 "Evolve #19: Title Tournament". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ↑ Gee Schoon Tong, Chris (February 23, 2014). "Show results - 2/23 DGUSA in New York: New Evolve champion, Gargano defends DGUSA Title, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 24, 2014.