The Evolve Championship was a men's

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

that was created and promoted by the American

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Evolve. The inaugural champion was A. R. Fox and the final champion was

Josh Briggs Joshua Bruns (born March 5, 1993) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Josh Briggs. He is signed to WWE where he performs on the NXT brand. He was a one-time and the final NXT UK Tag Team Champion. Bruns previou ...

. There were 10 reigns among 10 different wrestlers. The championship was deactivated on July 2, 2020, after

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

acquired the promotion. In May 2025, two months after the relaunch of Evolve as a WWE brand division, a new

WWE Evolve Championship The WWE Evolve Championship is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the developmental brand Evolve. The title was established on May 7, 2025. The current champion is Jackso ...

was created but it has not been confirmed if this new title will retain the lineage of the original Evolve Championship.

History

Origin

Evolve was founded in 2009 by

Dragon Gate USA Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) is an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2009 as an international expansion of the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. Gabe Sapolsky, former head booker of Ring of Honor, served as the promotion's Vice Presi ...

booker

Gabe Sapolsky Gabe Sapolsky (born September 26, 1972) is an American professional wrestling promoter and booker. He is signed to WWE, where he oversees WWE ID and WWE NIL, WWE ID (Independent Development), a talent identification and development initiative. S ...

Full Impact Pro Full Impact Pro (FIP) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is currently part of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) along with Shine Wrestling. Sal Hamaoui founded the company and serves as the president, while Trevin Adams is the ...

(FIP) owner Sal Hamaoui and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

wrestler

Davey Richards Wesley David Richards (born March 1, 1983), best known under the ring name Davey Richards, is a retired American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. Best known for his time in Impact Wrestling, TNA Wrestling and Ring of Honor, and for ...

and held its first event on January 16, 2010. Originally, Evolve had no championships, instead putting emphasis on each wrestler's win–loss record. 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 Championship The DGUSA Open the United Gate Championship was a tag team championship within the Dragon Gate USA promotion. The first champions were World–1 ( Masato Yoshino and Pac) and were crowned at ''United: Finale'' in the tournament final, which was ...

s as its top two titles. However, on September 8, 2012, Evolve announced that the promotion would be introducing its first own title, the Evolve Championship. A. R. Fox defeated defeated

Sami Callihan Samuel Alton Johnston (born September 1, 1987), better known by the ring name Sami Callihan, is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and promoter. He is signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestlin ...

in the finals of an eight-man tournament on April 5, 2013, to become the inaugural champion. The title was defended outside of the United States for the first time on August 29, 2014, when champion

Drew Galloway Andrew McLean Galloway IV (born 6 June, 1985) is a Scottish professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Drew McIntyre. Galloway began his career in 2001 in the United Kingdom wit ...

retained against Johnny Moss at an event in

Kilmarnock, Scotland Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

and then again the following day when Galloway defeated Andy Wild in a Battle of the Nations match in

Aberdeen, Scotland Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberd ...

. Following multiple successful international championship defenses by Galloway, he dubbed the title the Evolve World Championship on January 9, 2015, at Evolve 36. However, with some exceptions, the promotion mainly continued referring to the title as simply the Evolve Championship. During Galloway's record-breaking reign, the title was defended internationally in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Australia for promotions such as

Revolution Pro Wrestling Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro/RPW) is a British professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on 26 August 2012 by Andy Quildan after separating from International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom. Revolution Pro Wre ...

British Championship Wrestling British Championship Wrestling (BCW) is an independent professional wrestling promotion based in East Kilbride, Scotland, UK. It is currently owned and operated by promoter Graham McKay (who also performs under the name Charles Boddington) af ...

, WrestleZone, Rock N Wrestle, Future Pro Wrestling, Outback Championship Wrestling, Premier British Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Ulster. During the subsequent

Timothy Thatcher Timothy Andrew Moura (born March 17, 1983), better known by the ring name Timothy Thatcher, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE as a trainer for the WWE ID program and as in-ring performer on the Evolve brand; he is best ...

title reign, the title was also defended three times in Germany for

Westside Xtreme Wrestling Westside Xtreme Wrestling, commonly shortened to wXw, is a German professional wrestling promotion based in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. wXw has been one of the leading professional wrestling promotions in Germany, and most of its event ...

. The title was also defended outside of EVOLVE for US independent promotions, including Premiere Wrestling Xperience, Big Time Wrestling, Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment, MAGNUM Pro Wrestling,

WWNLive The World Wrestling Network is an American professional wrestling organization known for and branded after its video streaming service, WWNLive. WWNLive hosts content both from WWN's "brands", including Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestl ...

, Pro Wrestling Force and DGUSA and on a EVOLVE/WWN crossover event with

Progress Wrestling Progress Wrestling (stylized as PROGRESS) is a British professional wrestling promotion that was established in 2011 by comedian Jim Smallman, events and comedy promoter Jon Briley, and later, actor Glen Robinson (professionally known as Glen ...

. The Evolve Championship was deactivated in July 2, 2020, after

acquired Evolve and ceased operations.

WWE revival

In January 2025, it was reported that WWE were planning to revive Evolve as a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

. At

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after, and centered on, the Royal Rumble match, a modified Battle royal (professional wre ...

on February 1, WWE announced that '' Evolve'' would premiere on

Tubi Tubi (stylized as tubi) is an American over-the-top ad-supported streaming television service owned by Fox Corporation since 2020. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, Tubi, Credible L ...

on March 5 in the United States and on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

internationally. On the May 7 episode of ''Evolve'', Evolve Prime Minister

Stevie Turner Lucy Bridge (born 15 December 1996) is an English professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she serves as the on-screen co-assistant general manager of the NXT brand and the on-screen general manager of the Evolve brand under the ring ...

announced the creation of the WWE Evolve Championship and the

WWE Evolve Women's Championship The WWE Evolve Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the developmental brand Evolve. The title was unveiled on May 7, 2025. The current champion is ...

but it has not been confirmed if the new Evolve Championship will retain the lineage of the original championship.

Tournaments

Inaugural tournament

On February 8, 2013, Evolve announced that the inaugural Evolve Champion would be determined in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

on April 5, 2013. Based on their win–loss records, number one seed Chuck Taylor and number two seed

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

earned automatic spots in the semifinals of the tournament, while number three and four seeds A. R. Fox and Jon Davis earned spots in the first round of the tournament. The second first round match was a

four-way match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a storyline. ...

made up of

Rich Swann Richard Anthony Swann (born February 15, 1991) is an American professional wrestler. he is best known for his tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is a former Impact World Champion, TNA World Heavyweight Championship (2020–2021), ...

Samuray del Sol Emanuel Alejandro Rodriguez (born November 14, 1986) is a Mexican-American professional wrestler, currently performing on the independent circuit under the ring name Samuray Del Sol. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he worked with the ...

and Jigsaw, seeds five to eight, respectively. The entire tournament took place during the Evolve 19

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

(iPPV) in

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a Town (New Jersey), town in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 22,181, an increase of 5,917 (+36.4%) from the 2010 United St ...

. In their first round matches, A. R. Fox advanced with a disqualification win over Jon Davis, while Sami Callihan submitted Samuray del Sol to win the four-way match. In the semifinals, both the number one and number two seeds were eliminated, when Callihan submitted Chuck Taylor and Fox pinned Ricochet. In the end, Fox pinned Callihan in the finals to win the tournament and become the inaugural Evolve Champion.

Title history

Names

Reigns

References

External links

{{Evolve Championship Evolve (professional wrestling) championships Dragon Gate USA championships WWNLive championships