WWN Championship

Professional wrestling championship

WWN Championship

Keith Lee, Shown here with the WWN Championship

Details
Promotion| WWNLive
Date established| November 23, 2016[1]
Date retired| November 9, 2019
| Statistics

First champion| Matt Riddle[2]
Final champion| Austin Theory
Most reigns| Austin Theory
(2 reigns)
Longest reign| JD Drake
(258 days)
Shortest reign| Austin Theory
(1st reign, 78 days)
Oldest champion| JD Drake
(34 years, 275 days)
Youngest champion| Austin Theory
(20 years, 247 days)
Heaviest champion| Keith Lee
(320 lb (150 kg))
Lightest champion| Joey Janela
(183 lb (83 kg))

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.[2]

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title was won as a result of a scripted match. There have been six reigns shared among five wrestlers.

## History

[edit]

Matt Riddle, the inaugural WWN Champion

On November 23, 2016, WWNLive, the governing body overseeing promotions such as Evolve and Full Impact Pro (FIP), announced the creation of the WWN Championship.[1] The champion would defend the title across all promotions under the WWNLive umbrella. Each promotion was asked to send their representative for an elimination match on April 1, 2017, at Mercury Rising 2017 to determine the inaugural champion. Former Evolve Champion and Evolve Tag Team Champion Drew Galloway was the first entrant into the match on February 22.[3] Over the following weeks, Fred Yehi, Jon Davis, Matt Riddle, Parrow and Tracy Williams were added to the match.[4] At Mercury Rising 2017, Timothy Thatcher was added to the match, while Galloway was pulled out, after suffering a storyline injury at the hands of Keith Lee.[2] It was later revealed that this had been done due to Galloway having re-signed with WWE.[5] Riddle went on to win the six-way elimination match to become the inaugural WWN Champion.[2]

It was later retired at Evolve’s 10th Anniversary Show when it was defended by JD Drake against then Evolve Champion Austin Theory in a Title for Title Match

## Title history

[edit]

Key  No.  | Overall reign number

|

Reign  | Reign number for the specific champion
Days  | Number of days held
Defenses  | Number of successful defenses
No. | Champion  | Championship change  | Reign statistics  | Notes  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

Date  | Event  | Location  | Reign  | Days | Defenses
1  | Matt Riddle | April 1, 2017 | Mercury Rising | Fern Park, FL | 1  | 196 | 9  | Defeated Fred Yehi, Jon Davis, Parrow, Timothy Thatcher and Tracy Williams in a six-way elimination match to become the inaugural champion.  | [2]
2  | Keith Lee | October 14, 2017 | Evolve 94 | Queens, NY | 1  | 174 | 4  | This was a Last Man Standing match | [6]
3  | Austin Theory | April 6, 2018 | Evolve 103 | Kenner, Louisiana | 1  | 78 | 1  | This was a winner takes all match, in which Theory defended the FIP World Heavyweight Championship.  | [7]
4  | Joey Janela | June 23, 2018 | Evolve 106 | Brooklyn, NY | 1  | 101 | 2  |  | [8]
—  | Vacated | October 2, 2018 | —  | —  | —  | — | —  | WWN stripped Janela of the title after a knee injury  | [9]
5  | JD Drake  | October 28, 2018 | Evolve 114  | Ybor City, FL | 1  | 258 | 11  | This was a six-way ladder match for the vacant title, also involving Anthony Henry, Austin Theory, Darby Allin, Harlem Bravado.  | [10]
6  | Austin Theory | July 13, 2019 | Evolve 131 | Philadelphia, PA | 2  | 119 | 0  | This was also for Theory's Evolve Championship.  | [11]
—  | Deactivated  |  November 9, 2019 | —  | —  | —  | — | —  | The title was then retired without an official announcement.  |

## Combined reigns

[edit]

Record two-time and final champion Austin Theory

Rank  | Wrestler  | No. of
reigns  | Combined
defenses  | Combined
days

|
|
|
|

1  | JD Drake | 1 | 11 | 258
2  | Austin Theory | 2 | 1 | 197
3  | Matt Riddle | 1 | 9 | 196
4  | Keith Lee | 1 | 4 | 174
5  | Joey Janela | 1 | 2 | 101

## See also

[edit]

* Evolve Championship

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Johnson, Mike (November 23, 2016). "WWNLive launching new title, new brand". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
2. ^ a b c d e Trionfo, Richard (April 1, 2017). "WWN Mercury Rising 2017 report: the first WWN Champion is crowned, Progress versus Evolve series, Shine Championship match, and is there a new sheriff in Evolve?". PWInsider. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
3. ^ Fernandes, Steven (February 22, 2017). "How WWNLive champ will be crowned, first competitor announced". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
4. ^ Currier, Joseph (April 1, 2017). "Evolve 81 recap: The man of the hour". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
5. ^ Currier, Joseph (April 1, 2017). "Drew Galloway re-signs with WWE, appears at NXT TakeOver". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
6. ^ Williams, JJ (October 15, 2017). "EVOLVE 94 results: Matt Riddle vs. Keith Lee last man standing match". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
7. ^ Williams, JJ (April 6, 2018). "Evolve 103 Results: Matt Riddle vs. Daisuke Sekimoto". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
8. ^ Csonka, Larry (June 23, 2018). "Join 411's LIVE EVOLVE 106 Coverage". 411MANIA. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
9. ^ Csonka, Larry (October 2, 2018). "WWN Strips Joey Janela of The WWN Title, Announces Tournament". 411MANIA. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
10. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip (October 28, 2018). "EVOLVE 114 - Pay Per View @ The Orpheum in Ybor City, Florida, USA". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
11. ^ Moore, John. "7/13 Evolve 131 on WWE Network results: Moore's live review of the 10th Anniversary show featuring Adam Cole vs. Akira Tozawa for the NXT Championship, Evolve Champion Austin Theory vs. WWN Champion JD Drake in a winner take all match, Matt Riddle vs. Drew Gulak". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 13, 2019.

## External links

[edit]

* WWN Championship History at Cagematch.net

* v
* t
* e

WWN Champions

* Matt Riddle
* Keith Lee
* Austin Theory
* Joey Janela
* JD Drake

*[No.]: Number
*[Ref.]: Reference(s)
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