WWNLive

World Wrestling Network (WWN) is an American professional wrestling organization known for its video streaming service WWNLive.[1][2][3][4][5]

Not to be confused with World Wrestling Network, the short-lived early-to-mid 1990s National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated promotion founded by promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. & owned by him & fellow promoter Paul Heyman.
World Wrestling Network
AcronymWWNLive
Founded2001 (DVD company)
2010 (Governing body)
HeadquartersUnited States
Founder(s)Sal Hamaoui
Owner(s)Sal Hamaoui
Websitehttp://www.wwnlive.com/

WWNLive host's content both from WWN's wrestling promotions as well as content from third-party organizations. Collectively, WWNLive refers to these as "brands". Currently, there are eight active brands on the network. They are; Full Impact Pro (which is owned by WWN), Shine Wrestling, Kayfabe Commentaries, Club WWN Supershow, American Combat Wrestling, Viva La Lucha, WWN Pro Wrestling Training Center, The Hot Zone and Grindhouse.[6] Previously, Evolve Wrestling was owned by WWN and featured as a brand on WWNLive prior to its purchase by WWE.

History

WWNLive was founded in 2011 by Sal Hamaoui and Tony Valamontes in 2001 as a DVD company and later an internet streaming and video on demand service.[5] In 2003, WWNLive began producing Full Impact Pro (FIP) DVDs.[5]

In early 2010, Gabe Sapolsky co-founded Evolve along with WWNLive COO Sal Hamaoui and wrestler Davey Richards. Evolve started out with the idea of featuring the upcoming wrestlers that weren't in Dragon Gate USA. 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 WWNLive. In 2011, WWNLive launched its own live iPPV streaming service, www.WWNLive.com. Sapolsky helped market and produce content for WWNLive.com.

2014 saw WWNLive 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 WWNLive brands as well as special guest attractions.

Dragon Gate USA held its last event in 2014 and is currently defunct. Sapolsky is now the Vice President of Talent Relations, Creative and Marketing of WWNLive with his main concentration on Evolve and WWN Supershows. Sapolsky also helps market the other WWNLive 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.[7] 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.[8]

In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in Trinity, Florida named "World Wrestling Network Academy".[9]

During 2015, Evolve entered a relationship with WWE. Evolve's wrestlers were featured on WWE.com,[10] while NXT wrestlers Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles.[11][12] In January 2016, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE COO Triple H attended Evolve 54.[13] As part of the relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWE's Cruiserweight Classic.[14]

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.[15]

On November 22, 2016, it was announced that WWNLive would be debuting a new promotion named Style Battle on January 7, 2017.[16] Also announced was the creation of the WWN Championship on April 1, 2017.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19] The following December, WWNLive launched a replacement streaming service, Club WWN.[20]

On July 2020, Evovle was sold to WWE, closing down the brand and Sapolsky left WWN.[21] A few weeks later, WWN announced the creation of Grindhouse, a new brand promoted by Eddie Kingston.[22]

Members
Promotion Key People State Years
American Combat Wrestling 5th Avenue Entertainment Port Richey, Florida 2001–present[23]
Dragon Gate USA Gabe Sapolsky Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2009–2015

(Library owned by WWE)

Evolve Wrestling Gabe Sapolsky Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2009–2020
Full Impact Pro Sal Hamaoui Largo, Florida 2009–present
Shine Wrestling Dave Prazak Ybor City, Florida 2012–present
Style Battle Gabe Sapolsky Ybor City, Florida 2017–2020
Viva La Lucha Ruben Zamora[24] San Diego, California[24] 2006–present[25]
Grindhouse Eddie Kingston 2020-present

Championships
Active
Championship Current champion(s) Reign Date won Days Location Previous champion(s)
FIP World Heavyweight Championship Jon Davis 2 February 21, 2020[26] 343 Ybor City, Florida Anthony Henry
FIP World Tag Team Championship The Skulk
(Adrian Alanis and Liam Gray)		 1 November 1, 2019 455[27] Ybor City, Florida The Precipice
(Chance Auren and Omar Amir)
FIP Florida Heritage Championship Jon Davis 2 May 25, 2018[28] 980 Ybor City, Florida Eddie Taurus
Shine Championship Ivelisse 3 December 14, 2019 412 Chicago, Illinois Allysin Kay
Shine Tag Team Championship BTY
(Jayme Jameson and Marti Belle)		 2 January 19, 2020 376 Fern Park, Florida Team Aye
(Aja Perera and Big Swole)
Shine Nova Championship Natalia Markova 1 December 14, 2019 412 Chicago, Illinois Shotzi Blackheart
ACW Combat Championship Danny Vincent 1 February 2, 2019 727 Port Richey, Florida Sawl Clover
ACW Cruiserweight Championship Sage Scott 1 September 7, 2019 510 Port Richey, Florida Bobby Flaco
ACW Heavyweight Championship Damien Angel 1 December 1, 2018 790 Port Richey, Florida Mitch Mitchell
ACW Tag Team Championship OAO
(Hunter Law and Troy Hollywood)		 1 July 6, 2019 573 Port Richey, Florida The International Superstars
(Blanco Loco and Joey Ozbourne)
ACW Women's Championship Avery Taylor 2 July 6, 2019 573 Port Richey, Florida Natalia Markova
Defunct
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

References
  1. "WWN Info".
  2. Keith Harris (11 June 2015). "WWE in negotiations with WWNLive for loose affiliation, is it linked to heat with Ring of Honor?". Cageside Seats.
  3. "PWTorch.com - DEVELOPING STORY: Update on WWE and WWNLive working together after WWE personnel attend EVOLVE show".
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-04-06. Retrieved 2016-04-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "About". WWNLive. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  6. "Brand Pages".
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Caldwell, James (2015-02-19). "WWNLive news: Official new training facility announced". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2015-02-19.
  10. Melok, Bobby (2015-10-15). "NXT's next breakout stars?: Meet the 5 Evolve wrestlers you need to know". WWE. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  11. "10/17 Evolve 49 Results – Zayn, Gargano, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  12. "NXT GM & Tag Team to appear at Evolve show". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  13. "Evolve 54 iPPV results: HHH & William Regal make an appearance". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  14. "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.
  15. Nason, Josh (2016-10-24). "FloSports announces deal with WWNLive, launches pro wrestling streaming service". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  16. Currier, Joseph (2016-11-22). "WWNLive debuting new Style Battle promotion on FloSlam". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  17. Johnson, Mike (2016-11-23). "WWNLive launching new title, new brand". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  18. 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.
  19. Currier, Joseph (2017-09-22). "Evolve events pulled from FloSlam schedule". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  20. Currier, Joseph (2017-12-20). "WWN launches new on-demand service". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  21. "411MANIA". Gabe Sapolsky Says Goodbye To Independent Wrestling.
  22. "411MANIA". WWN Launching New Brand Eddie Kingston’s Grindhouse, Will Debut Next Month.
  23. "411MANIA". WWN Live to Create New WWN Championship to be Defended Across All Promotions.
  24. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "Viva La Lucha! (VLL)". cagematch.net. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  25. "Viva La Lucha on WWNLive.com". WWNLive.com. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  26. 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.
  27. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=245737
  28. "FIP Florida Heritage Championship". Cage Match. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
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