 | |
| Acronym | WWNLive |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 (DVD company) 2010 (Governing body) |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Founder(s) | Sal Hamaoui |
| Owner(s) | Sal Hamaoui |
| Website | http://www.wwnlive.com/ |
The World Wrestling Network is an American professional wrestling organization known for and branded after its video streaming service, WWNLive. [1] WWNLive hosts content both from WWN's "brands", including Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestling, as well as content from third-party organizations. [2]
World Wrestling Network was founded by Sal Hamaoui and Tony Valamontes in 2001 as a DVD company before it later evolved into an internet streaming and video on demand business. [1] In 2003, WWNLive began producing FIP DVDs. [1]
In November 2014, Evolve Wrestling, Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestling held a tour of China under the WWNLive banner. [3] 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. [4]
In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in Trinity, Florida named the "World Wrestling Network Academy". [5] That year, Evolve began a partnership with WWE. Evolve's wrestlers were featured on WWE.com, [6] while NXT wrestlers Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles. [7] [8] In January 2016, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE COO Triple H attended Evolve 54. [9] As part of the relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWE's Cruiserweight Classic. [10]
On October 24, 2016, WWNLive and FloSports announced a new streaming service to launch on November 4. Through the service, subscribers can access both live streaming events as well as events from WWNLive's on-demand library, dating back to 2003. [11]
On November 22, 2016, it was announced that WWNLive would be debuting a new promotion named Style Battle on January 7, 2017. [12] Also announced was the creation of the WWN Championship on April 1, 2017. [13]
On September 21, 2017, it was reported that FloSports had filed a $1 million lawsuit against WWNLive for breach of contract and alleged misrepresentation of iPPV and VOD buyrates. [14] WWNLive, meanwhile, claimed that FloSports had failed to live up to their contractual obligations. Because of the lawsuit, FloSports pulled all future WWNLive events from its streaming service. [15] The following December, WWNLive launched a replacement streaming service, Club WWN. [16]
In July 2020, Evolve's assets were sold to WWE and Sapolsky left WWN. [17] A few weeks later, WWN announced the creation of Grindhouse, a new brand promoted by Eddie Kingston. [18]
| Promotion | Key People | State | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Combat Wrestling | 5th Avenue Entertainment | Port Richey, Florida | 2001–present [19] |
| Full Impact Pro | Sal Hamaoui | Largo, Florida | 2009–present |
| Grindhouse | Eddie Kingston | 2020–present | |
| Shine Wrestling | Dave Prazak | Ybor City, Florida | 2012–present |
| Viva La Lucha | Ruben Zamora [20] | San Diego, California [20] | 2006–present [21] |
| Promotion | Key People | State | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Gate USA | Gabe Sapolsky | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 2009–2015 (Library owned by WWE) |
| Evolve Wrestling | Gabe Sapolsky | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 2009–2020 |
| Style Battle | Gabe Sapolsky | Ybor City, Florida | 2017–2020 |
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days | Location | Previous champion(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIP World Heavyweight Championship | Jon Davis | 2 | February 21, 2020 [22] | 1,640 | Ybor City, Florida | Anthony Henry |
| FIP World Tag Team Championship | The Island Kings (Jaka and Sean Maluta) | 1 | November 1, 2019 | 1,752 [23] | Ybor City, Florida | The Precipice (Chance Auren and Omar Amir) |
| FIP Florida Heritage Championship | Troy Hollywood | 1 | May 22, 2021 [24] | 1,184 | Ybor City, Florida | Vacant |
| Shine Championship | Ivelisse | 3 | December 14, 2019 | 1,709 | Chicago, Illinois | Allysin Kay |
| Shine Tag Team Championship | BTY (Jayme Jameson and Marti Belle) | 2 | January 19, 2020 | 1,673 | Fern Park, Florida | Team Aye (Aja Perera and Big Swole) |
| Shine Nova Championship | Amber Nova | 1 | December 10, 2023 | 252 | Clearwater, Florida | Ivelisse |
| ACW Combat Championship | Danny Vincent | 1 | February 2, 2019 | 2,024 | Port Richey, Florida | Sawl Clover |
| ACW Cruiserweight Championship | Sage Scott | 1 | September 7, 2019 | 1,807 | Port Richey, Florida | Bobby Flaco |
| ACW Heavyweight Championship | Damien Angel | 1 | December 1, 2018 | 2,087 | Port Richey, Florida | Mitch Mitchell |
| ACW Tag Team Championship | OAO (Hunter Law and Troy Hollywood) | 1 | July 6, 2019 | 1,870 | Port Richey, Florida | The International Superstars (Blanco Loco and Joey Ozbourne) |
| ACW Women's Championship | Avery Taylor | 2 | July 6, 2019 | 1,870 | Port Richey, Florida | Natalia Markova |
| Championship | Final champion | Date retired | Days held | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WWN Championship | Austin Theory | November 9, 2019 | 119 | The title was then retired without an official announcement |
Gabriel Sapolsky 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 industry, notably as Paul Heyman's personal assistant with Extreme Championship Wrestling, the co-founder and head of talent relations (booker) at Ring of Honor, the vice-president of Dragon Gate USA, vice-president of talent relations, creative and marketing of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) and creative writer (booker) and founder of EVOLVE. Sapolsky also worked in a booking capacity for various other promotions including Full Impact Pro and Style Battle, as well as for special events like the WWN Supershow and the Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup.
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 Vice President of FIP.
Matthew Cassandra Riddle is an American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. As of December 2023, he is signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW). He also makes appearances for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where he is the current AAA Cruiserweight Champion in his first reign. He is best known for his tenures in the UFC and WWE.
Trevor Dean Mann, better known by his ring name Ricochet, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE from 2018 to 2024, where he is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE United States Champion, NXT North American Champion, the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winner, and the inaugural WWE Speed Champion.
Jonathan Huber was an American professional wrestler known as Brodie Lee. Huber performed under the ring name Luke Harper in WWE from 2012 to 2019, and as Mr. Brodie Lee in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2020.
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 President.
Gregory Marasciulo, better known by the ring name Trent Beretta, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of The Don Callis Family. He is also known for his time with WWE as Trent Barreta and New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor under the ring name Beretta. As part of Roppongi Vice alongside Rocky Romero, Beretta is a former four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. He is also known for his tenures with Pro Wrestling Guerilla and various independent promotions.
Mercury Rising is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event currently produced by the World Wrestling Network (WWN) under the name WWNLive Supershow: Mercury Rising. The event takes place during WrestleMania weekend, at a venue in the same metropolitan area the WrestleMania is held, and features talent from WWN's affiliate promotions, including EVOLVE, Full Impact Pro and SHINE.
Evolve Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2010 by former Ring of Honor booker and Dragon Gate USA vice president, Gabe Sapolsky.
John Anthony Nicholas Gargano is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Gargano is best known for his time in NXT, where he became the first-ever NXT Triple Crown winner by winning the NXT Championship once, the NXT North American Championship for a record 3 times, and the NXT Tag Team Championship once. His popularity in NXT led him to be nicknamed "The Heart and Soul of NXT".
Kyle Richard Thomas Greenwood, better known by his ring name Kyle O'Reilly, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of The Conglomeration. He is also known for working in Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2009 to 2017, and WWE from 2017 to 2021, using the same ring name in both companies. He is a record three-time NXT Tag Team Champion, and was a founding member of The Undisputed Era.
Emanuel Alejandro Rodriguez is a Mexican-American professional wrestler, currently performing under the ring name Samuray Del Sol. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Kalisto, as a member of both the Lucha Dragons and Lucha House Party.
Sesugh Uhaa is a Nigerian-American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Apollo Crews.
The Evolve Championship was a professional wrestling championship owned by the Evolve promotion. The inaugural champion was crowned on April 5, 2013, when A. R. Fox defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an eight-man tournament.
Shine Wrestling 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 Internet pay-per-view (iPPV).
The Evolve Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the Evolve promotion. The inaugural champions were crowned on January 24, 2016, at the end of an eight-team tournament.
The WWN Championship was a professional wrestling championship promoted by the WWNLive governing body. The inaugural champion was crowned on April 1, 2017, when Matt Riddle defeated five other men for the title.
Keith Gerald Lee II, better known under his ring name Keith Lee, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time in WWE from 2018 to 2021 and Ring of Honor (ROH), as well as on the independent circuit with promotions such as Evolve, All American Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
Evolve 131, also known as Evolve's 10th Anniversary Celebration, was a professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by the American promotion Evolve in partnership with WWE. The event aired on the WWE Network, making it the first Evolve show and the first independent wrestling show to broadcast live on the platform. It took place on July 13, 2019, at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show featured current Evolve wrestlers and alumni, as well as wrestlers from WWE's NXT and 205 Live brand divisions.
WWNLive, the parent company of Evolve, Shine, FIP and Dragon Gate USA.
