Evolve (stylized

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

) was an American

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

founded in 2010 by former

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...

booker and

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 ...

vice president,

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 ...

. The company featured a roster of wrestlers from all over America, as well as several competitors from Japan. The promotion had a close working relationship with sister promotion Dragon Gate USA until Dragon Gate USA's closure in August 2015. In the same year, Evolve formed a relationship with

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, ...

, allowing WWE to scout Evolve talent and potentially sign them. On July 2, 2020, WWE officially purchased Evolve. In March 2025, WWE relaunched Evolve as a new brand division with a new series titled ''

WWE Evolve ''WWE Evolve'', also known simply as ''Evolve'' (stylized as ''EVOLVE''), is an American professional wrestling streaming television program produced by the American company WWE. It features wrestlers from the promotion's Evolve brand divisi ...

'' 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 ...

History

In 2009, Gabe Sapolsky announced a new wrestling promotion via some

viral videos Viral videos are videos that become popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Hauptma ...

featuring one of the company's competitors,

Jimmy Jacobs Christopher Scoville (born February 17, 1984) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Jimmy Jacobs. He is best known for his 12-year career in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a List of ROH Wor ...

. After this more videos were produced promoting more performers, as well as featuring

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

s written by the wrestlers about their feelings regarding the company. The first show, Evolve 1: Richards vs. Ibushi, was held on January 16, 2010, in

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city (New Jersey), city in southern Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway River, Rahway Valley region, in the New ...

at the Rahway Recreational Center. During interviews with wrestling newsletter ''Figure 4 Weekly'' on its radio show, Sapolsky told editor Bryan Alvarez that Evolve would have stronger emphasis on

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pertaining to the structure or behavior internal to a business * School rule, a rule tha ...

and would not limit anyone based on their own respective style of wrestling in favor of showcasing the talent's individual strengths and covering up their weaknesses. On January 29, 2010, Sapolsky announced that Evolve would no longer be booking Davey Richards as he had signed a new contract with

. The concept of the promotion was initially an emphasis on the wrestlers' win–loss records. They divided the company into two divisions: singles wrestlers and

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establis ...

s. As per the website, some wrestlers would need to earn their way onto the roster by winning a qualifying match, but that since has been dropped. On November 25, 2011, Evolve and

announced the unification of the two promotions. Evolve and Dragon Gate USA will still promote separate events, but the two share rosters, including stables, and Evolve recognizes Dragon Gate USA's

Open the Freedom Gate Championship The Open the Freedom Gate Championship was the major title in the promotion Dragon Gate USA. The first holder of the title was crowned following a 14-man tournament held at DGUSA Freedom Fight on November 28, 2009. The title was recognized by Drag ...

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 ...

as its top two championships. In February 2013, Evolve announced that they would be holding a tournament to crown the first Evolve Champion as they were eliminating the records system at that time. The tournament was held 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 ...

, at WrestleCon in April 2013. Evolve used the records of the talent to determine the seedings in the tournament; the top two were Chuck Taylor (10–5) and

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 ...

(5–2), and both received byes into the second round. On April 5, A. R. Fox 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 final to become the inaugural champion. On September 18, 2013, Vito LoGrasso announced that his new Wrestling School signed an agreement to be the Development Center for Evolve. In November 2014, Evolve, along with Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA),

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) and

Shine Wrestling Shine Wrestling (stylized as SHINE Wrestling and often referred to simply as SHINE) is an American, New York based independent women's professional wrestling promotion. It is the sister promotion to Shimmer Women Athletes and airs events on In ...

, all under the

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 ...

banner, held a tour of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The following month, WWNLive announced a long-term deal with Great-Wall International Sports Management for regular tours of Asia, starting in the spring of 2015. In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in

Trinity, Florida Trinity is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pasco County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,924 in 2020, according to the most recent census. The Trinity Community is named after Trinity College of Florida, a Bible college founded ...

named "World Wrestling Network Academy", which Evolve shares with DGUSA, FIP and Shine. During 2015, Evolve entered a relationship with

. Evolve's wrestlers were featured on WWE.com, while NXT wrestlers

Sami Zayn Rami Sebei (born July 12, 1984) is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Sami Zayn. Sebei made his professional wrestling debut in 2002 under the ring name Stevie McFly. Pr ...

Chad Gable Charles Edward Betts (born March 8, 1986) is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler. He has been signed to WWE where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Chad Gable and also portrays the masked luchador El G ...

and

Jason Jordan Nathan Everhart (born September 28, 1988), better known by the ring name Jason Jordan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he works as the lead producer for '' Raw'' and '' SmackDown''. Jordan signed a contr ...

took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles. In January 2016, NXT General Manager

William Regal Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the ring name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he serves as the vice-president of Global Talent Development. He is also known for ...

and WWE COO

Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (; born July 27, 1969), also known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive and former professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he serves as its chief content officer. Levesque began his wres ...

attended Evolve 54. As part of the relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWE's

Cruiserweight Classic The Cruiserweight Classic, formerly the Global Cruiserweight Series, was a professional wrestling tournament and WWE Network event produced by WWE. All participants were billed at a weight of 205 lbs or less to determine the inaugural WWE Crui ...

. On April 1 and 2, 2016, Evolve held shows at Eddie Deen's Ranch in the build-up to

WrestleMania 32 WrestleMania 32 was a 2016 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming List of WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming supercards, event produced by WWE. It was the 32nd annual WrestleMania and took place on April 3, 2016, at the AT&T ...

. On October 24, 2016, WWNLive and FloSports announced a new streaming service, which would host events held by the WWNLive promotions, including Evolve. Evolve was the subject of the

Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The Vice ...

documentary, The Wrestlers, Episode 1. On July 13, 2019, Evolve held its 10th Anniversary Celebration, an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of Dragon Gate USA's founding. The event was streamed on the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, a division of TKO Group Holdings. The service relied on technology develo ...

. This marked the first Evolve event and the first independent wrestling event to air on the WWE Network. On July 2, 2020, it was announced that after months of negotiation,

had purchased Evolve, giving them full rights to the name and video library.

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 ...

. The company trademarked the name "Evolve" on January 30, 2025, with the first set of Evolve tapings under WWE set to be held at the

WWE Performance Center WWE Performance Center (WWE PC) is a group of professional wrestling schools owned by American company WWE. They serve as tryout and training facilities for WWE, and also contain sports science and medical facilities as well as live events and ...

on February 7, replacing ''

WWE NXT Level Up ''WWE NXT Level Up'', also known as ''NXT Level Up'' (stylized as '' NXT LVL UP''), is an American professional wrestling streaming television program that was produced by the American promotion WWE, running from February 18, 2022, to December 27 ...

'', which was cancelled in December 2024. During the

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 ''

'' would premiere on

on March 5.

Events

Championships

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evolve (Professional Wrestling) Entertainment companies established in 2010 Entertainment companies disestablished in 2020 WWE mergers and acquisitions Defunct professional wrestling promotions