Evolve Championship
The Evolve Championship was a men's professional wrestling championship that was created and promoted by the American promotion Evolve. The inaugural champion was A. R. Fox and the final champion was Josh Briggs. There were 10 reigns among 10 different wrestlers. The championship was deactivated on July 2, 2020, after WWE acquired the promotion.
In May 2025, two months after the relaunch of Evolve as a WWE brand division, a new WWE Evolve Championship was created, but it does not retain the lineage of the original Evolve Championship.
History
Origin
was founded in 2009 by Dragon Gate USA booker Gabe Sapolsky, Full Impact Pro owner Sal Hamaoui and independent wrestler Davey Richards 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 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. A. R. Fox defeated Sami Callihan 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 retained against Johnny Moss at an event in Kilmarnock, Scotland and then again the following day when Galloway defeated Andy Wild in a Battle of the Nations match in Aberdeen, 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 for promotions such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, British Championship Wrestling, WrestleZone, Rock N Wrestle, Future Pro Wrestling, Outback Championship Wrestling, Premier British Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Ulster. During the subsequent Timothy Thatcher title reign, the title was also defended three times in Germany for Westside Xtreme Wrestling. 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, Pro Wrestling Force and DGUSA and on a EVOLVE/WWN crossover event with Progress Wrestling.
The Evolve Championship was deactivated in July 2, 2020, after WWE acquired Evolve and ceased operations.