Evolve Championship

Evolve Championship
Current Champion(s)	Timothy Thatcher
Date Won	July 10, 2015
Promotion(s)	EVOLVE Dragon Gate USA
Date Established	September 8, 2012

The Evolve Championship was the major title in the promotion Evolve. The The inaugural champion was crowned on April 5, 2013, when AR Fox defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an eight-man tournament The title was also recognized by the Dragon Gate USA promotion.

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. 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. However, on September 8, 2012, Evolve announced that the promotion would be introducing its first own title, the Evolve Championship. 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. 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. During the subsequent Timothy Thatcher title reign, the title was also defended in Germany.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

First round

Semifinals

Finals

1

Chuck Taylor

Sub

7

Sami Callihan

8:37

5 6 8

Rich Swann Samuray del Sol Jigsaw

Sub

7

Sami Callihan

7

Sami Callihan

Pin

3

AR Fox

19:11

2

Ricochet

Pin

3

AR Fox

12:54

3

AR Fox

DQ

4

Jon Davis

Title History

Names

Name	Years
Evolve Championship	April 2013 – present
Evolve World Championship	January 2015, sporadically

Reigns

#	Wrestler	Reign	Date	Location	Length	Defenses	Notes
1	AR Fox	1	April 5, 2013	Secaucus, New Jersey	324 Days	6	Defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an eight-man tournament to become the inaugural champion.
2	Chris Hero	1	Febuary 23, 2014	Brooklyn, New York	166 Days	2
6	Drew Galloway	1	August 8, 2014	Tampa, Florida	336 Days	20
6	Timothy Thatcher	1	July 10, 2015	Tampa, Florida	Present	9	This match was also contested for the Evolve Championship.

Gallery

• Champions

AR Fox

Chris Hero

Drew Galloway

Timothy Thatcher