The Evolve Tag Team Championship was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tag team championship A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalri ...

owned by the Evolve

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 ...

. The inaugural champions were crowned on January 24, 2016, at the end of an eight-team tournament. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title was won as a result of a scripted match. There have been 13 reigns shared among 12 teams and 21 wrestlers.

History

Evolve was founded in 2009 by

Dragon Gate USA Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) was 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 Pr ...

(DGUSA) booker

Gabe Sapolsky Gabriel Sapolsky (born September 26, 1972) is an American professional wrestling promoter, creative writer, and booker who currently works for WWE. Sapolsky has also held various creative and marketing positions in the professional wrestling indu ...

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 the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

wrestler Davey Richards and held its first event on January 16, 2010. On November 25, 2011, Evolve and DGUSA 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 hel ...

s as its top two titles. On December 22, 2014,

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 Wrestling ...

, the parent company of both Evolve and DGUSA, announced it was putting DGUSA on hiatus until it could secure more Japanese wrestlers for the promotion's shows. The Open the United Gate Championship continued being defended at Evolve shows until May 30, 2015, when reigning champions

Johnny Gargano John Anthony Nicholas Gargano (born August 14, 1987) is an American professional wrestler best known under the ring name Johnny Gargano. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is best known for his time in NXT, wh ...

and

Rich Swann Richard Allen Swann (born February 15, 1991) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Impact Wrestling. He is a former Impact World Champion, TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Impact X Division Champion and Impact Digital Media Cha ...

retired the title and asked for a new Evolve tag team title to be created in its place. On September 22, Evolve announced that it would start putting more emphasis on the promotion's tag team division and would create the new title, if the experiment turned out successful. On November 10, 2015, Evolve sent out a press release, officially announcing the creation of the Evolve Tag Team Championship.

Championship tournament

Evolve announced that the inaugural champions would be determined in a tournament taking place over Evolve 53, Evolve 54 and Evolve 55 from January 22 to 24, 2016, in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. The first three teams participating in the tournament were revealed in the press release announcing the creation of the title. The rest of the teams were announced throughout the rest of November 2015 along with the clarification that the tournament would be contested in a

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

format with eight participating teams. The first round matches were announced on January 19, 2016.

Timothy Thatcher {{Infobox professional wrestler , name = Timothy Thatcher , image = ThatcherMLW2019.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Thatcher at MLW Saturday Night SuperFight , birth_name = Timothy Andrew Moura{{cite web, ur ...

was originally announced for the tournament, but he was forced to pull out due to a staph infection and was replaced by

Sami Callihan Samuel Alton Johnston (born September 1, 1987) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by the ring name Sami Callihan, currently signed with Impact Wrestling and is a former Impact World Champion. He also wrestled for Luch ...

. ;Participating teams *

The Bravado Brothers The Bravado Brothers were an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of real-life brothers Harlem Bravado (born Chance Barrow on April 22, 1989) and Lancelot Bravado (born Houston Barrow on September 16, 1985). The duo have worked for ...

(Harlem Bravado and Lancelot Bravado) *Catch Point (

Drew Gulak Drew Gulak (born April 28, 1987) is an American professional wrestler and professional wrestling trainer. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand. He is a former one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion and an eight-time ...

and

T. J. Perkins Theodore James Perkins (born September 3, 1984) is an American professional wrestler of Filipino descent, better known by the ring name T. J. Perkins (or simply TJP) currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling where he is a member of the Unite ...

) *Heroes. Eventually. Die. (

Chris Hero Chris Spradlin (born December 24, 1979), better known by his ring name Chris Hero, is an American professional wrestler and trainer. He is currently signed to Ring of Honor as a producer. Hero has worked for a number of independent wrestling pr ...

and

Tommy End Tom Budgen (born 19 May 1985) is a Dutch professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Malakai Black. He is also known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Aleister Black from 2017 ...

) *

Drew Galloway Andrew McLean Galloway IV (born 6 June 1985) is a Scottish professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Drew McIntyre. McIntyre is a two-time WWE Champion, one-time WWE In ...

and

*The Premier Athlete Brand (

Anthony Nese Anthony Nese (born August 6, 1985) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he is a former one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Professional wrestling career Indep ...

and

Caleb Konley Mason Burnett (born August 30, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his time in Impact Wrestling where he competed under the ring name Kaleb with a K, or simply, Kaleb Konley. He is best known under the ring name Caleb Kon ...

) *

Roppongi Vice Roppongi Vice (sometimes stylized as RPG Vice) is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Trent Baretta and Rocky Romero who currently compete for All Elite Wrestling (AEW). They are best known for their work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (N ...

(

Rocky Romero John R. Rivera (born October 28, 1982) is a Puerto Rican-American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He is currently signed non-exclusively to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), better known by his ring name Rocky Romero (ロッ ...

and

Trent Baretta Gregory "Greg" Marasciulo (born March 30, 1987), better known by the ring name Trent Beretta or Trent?, is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring ...

) *

and

Zack Sabre Jr. Lucas Eatwell (born 24 July 1987), better known by his ring name Zack Sabre Jr. (Katakana: ザック・セイバーJr, ''Zakku Seibā Jr.''), is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Outsid ...

*Team Tremendous (Bill Carr and Dan Barry)

Title history

Combined reigns

By wrestler

References

External links

Official Evolve website EVOLVE Tag Team Championship
{{Evolve Tag Team Championship Evolve (professional wrestling) championships WWNLive championships Tag team wrestling championships