WWNLive

World Wrestling Network
Acronym WWNLive
Founded 2001
Headquarters United States
Founder(s) Sal Hamaoui
Owner(s) Sal Hamaoui
Website http://www.wwnlive.com/

The World Wrestling Network (WWN), is a professional wrestling governing body and internet streaming and video on demand service originating from the United States.[1][2][3][4]

History

WWN was founded by Sal Hamaoui and Tony Valamontes in 2001 as an internet streaming and video on demand service.[4] In 2003, WWN began producing Full Impact Pro (FIP) DVDs.[4]

In early 2010, Gabe Sapolsky co-founded Evolve Wrestling along with WWN COO Sal Hamaoui. Evolve started out with the idea of featuring the upcoming wrestlers that weren't in DGUSA. Since that time, Sapolsky has honed his booking style. August 2014 saw a relaunch of Evolve, which has established a unique identity with the top talent going today.

Evolve and Dragon Gate USA are both under the parent company of WWN. In 2011, WWN launched its own live iPPV streaming service, www.WWNLive.com. Sapolsky helped market and produce content for WWNLive.com.

2014 saw WWN hold its first "supershows" with a two week tour of China. The first WWN Supershow in the United States also took place in 2014. The idea behind the WWN Supershow is to combine title matches and talent from all the WWN brands as well as special guest attractions.

Dragon Gate USA held its last event in 2014 and is currently dormant. Sapolsky is now the Vice President of Talent Relations, Creative and Marketing of WWN with his main concentration on Evolve and WWN Supershows. Sapolsky also helps market the other WWN brands, including Full Impact Pro and Shine, an all women's promotion.

In November 2014, Evolve, along with Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestling, all under the WWNLive banner, held a tour of China.[5] 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.[6]

In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in Trinity, Florida named "World Wrestling Network Academy".[7]

During 2015, Evolve entered a relationship with WWE. Evolve's wrestlers were featured on WWE.com,[8] while NXT wrestlers Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles.[9][10] In January 2016, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE COO Triple H attended Evolve 54.[11] As part of the relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWE's Cruiserweight Classic.[12]

On October 24, 2016, WWNLive and FloSports announced a new streaming service, starting 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.[13]

On November 22, 2016, it was announced that WWNLive would be debuting a new promotion named Style Battle on January 7, 2017.[14] Also announced was the creation of the WWN Championship on April 1, 2017.[15]

On September 21, 2017, it was reported that FloSports had filed a $1 million lawsuit against WWNLive for breach of contract and alleged misrepresention of iPPV and VOD buyrates.[16] 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.[17] The following December, WWNLive launched a replacement streaming service, Club WWN.[18]

Members

Promotion Key People State Years
American Combat Wrestling 5th Avenue Entertainment Florida 2001–present[19]
Dragon Gate USA Gabe Sapolsky Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2009 - 2015

(Dormant)

Evolve Wrestling Gabe Sapolsky Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2010–present
Full Impact Pro Sal Hamaoui Largo, Florida 2010–present
Shine Wrestling Dave Prazak Ybor City, Florida 2012–present
Style Battle Gabe Sapolsky Ybor City, Florida 2017–present
Viva La Lucha Ruben Zamora[20] San Diego, California[20] 2006–present[21]

Championships

Championship Current champion(s) Reign Date won Days Location Previous champion(s)
WWN Championship Vacant October 2, 2018 Joey Janela
Evolve Championship Shane Strickland 1 August 4, 2018 80 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Matt Riddle
Evolve Tag Team Championship Doom Petrol (Chris Dickinson and Jaka) 1 September 22, 2017 395 Livonia, Michigan (ACH and Ethan Page)
FIP World Heavyweight Championship Austin Theory 1 December 10, 2017[22] 317 Melrose, Massachusetts Fred Yehi
FIP World Tag Team Championship The End (Oddison and Parrow) 1 February 20,2018 [23] 1,173 Tampa, Florida The Hooligans (Eddie Graves and Teddy Stigma)
FIP Florida Heritage Championship Jon Davis 1 April 2, 2017[24] 569 New Port Richey, Florida Martin Stone
Shine Championship Vacant [25] June 26, 2018 LuFisto
Shine Tag Team Championship Twisted Sisters (Hollidead and Thunder Rosa) 1 July 20, 2018 95 Ybor City, Florida Ivelisse and Mercedes Martinez
Shine Nova Championship Candy Cartwright 1 March 10, 2018 227+ Woodside, NY Priscilla Kelly
ACW Combat Championship Saieve Al Sabah 1 Florida Sideshow
ACW Heavyweight Championship Mitch Mitchell Woodside, NY Parrow
ACW Cruiserweight Championship Markos Espada Snoop Strikes
ACW Tag Team Championship The Precipice (Chance Champion & Omar Amir) The Stateline (Damien Angel & Eddie Taurus)
ACW Women's Championship Katalina Perez VAKANT

References

  1. ↑ Keith Harris (11 June 2015). "WWE in negotiations with WWNLive for loose affiliation, is it linked to heat with Ring of Honor?". Cageside Seats.
  2. ↑ "PWTorch.com - DEVELOPING STORY: Update on WWE and WWNLive working together after WWE personnel attend EVOLVE show".
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-04-06. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  4. 1 2 3 "About". WWNLive. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  5. ↑ Johnson, Mike (2014-09-19). "Evolve heading to China (no, really)". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved 2014-09-19. WWNLive, the parent company of Evolve, Shine, FIP and Dragon Gate USA.
  6. ↑ Caldwell, James (2014-12-03). "Newswire: WWNLive announces long-term China plan, Ross talks importance of Tokyo Dome, New Japan's subscription goals, latest World Tag League standings, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2014-12-04.
  7. ↑ Caldwell, James (2015-02-19). "WWNLive news: Official new training facility announced". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2015-02-19.
  8. ↑ Melok, Bobby (2015-10-15). "NXT's next breakout stars?: Meet the 5 Evolve wrestlers you need to know". WWE. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  9. ↑ "10/17 Evolve 49 Results – Zayn, Gargano, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  10. ↑ "NXT GM & Tag Team to appear at Evolve show". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  11. ↑ "Evolve 54 iPPV results: HHH & William Regal make an appearance". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  12. ↑ "WWE to hold GCS matches at future EVOLVE event". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2016-03-19. Archived from the original on 2016-03-20. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  13. ↑ Nason, Josh (2016-10-24). "FloSports announces deal with WWNLive, launches pro wrestling streaming service". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  14. ↑ Currier, Joseph (2016-11-22). "WWNLive debuting new Style Battle promotion on FloSlam". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  15. ↑ Johnson, Mike (2016-11-23). "WWNLive launching new title, new brand". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  16. ↑ Radican, Sean (2017-09-21). "Breaking: FloSports files lawsuit against WWN for misrepresentation of iPPV & VOD buyrates, WWN planning countersuit (w/Radican's Analysis)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  17. ↑ Currier, Joseph (2017-09-22). "Evolve events pulled from FloSlam schedule". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  18. ↑ Currier, Joseph (2017-12-20). "WWN launches new on-demand service". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  19. ↑ http://411mania.com/wrestling/wwn-live-to-create-new-wwn-championship-to-be-defended-across-all-promotions/
  20. 1 2 Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Viva La Lucha! (VLL)". cagematch.net. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  21. ↑ "Viva La Lucha on WWNLive.com". WWNLive.com. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  22. ↑ Trionfo, Richard (2015-07-04). "FIP Declaration of Independence report: Swann versus Konley for the world title, Savages versus Solow and Cade for the tag titles, ladder match, and more". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  23. ↑ "SHOW RESULTS - 8/7 FIP in Ybor City, Fla.: New tag champs, Caleb Konley defends FIP Hvt. Title, So Cal Val, Trina, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. August 7, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  24. ↑ "FIP Florida Heritage Championship". Cage Match. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  25. ↑ https://wwnlive.com/2018/06/26/breaking-news-shine-championship-vacated/?v=7516fd43adaa
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.