The Open the Freedom Gate Championship was the major title in the promotion Dragon Gate USA. The first holder of the title was crowned following a 14-man tournament held at DGUSA Freedom Fight on November 28, 2009. The title was recognized by Dragon Gate USA's parent promotion, Dragon Gate, and it has been defended at a Dragon Gate show in Japan. The title was also recognized by the Evolve promotion.[3]
| Open the Freedom Gate Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | Dragon Gate USA Dragon Gate Evolve | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | November 28, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | August 15, 2015[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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There were seven reigns by six wrestlers. BxB Hulk became the first champion by winning a 14-man tournament. Timothy Thatcher was the final champion, vacating the title on August 15, 2015.[1]
The championship was defended in the USA, Japan, China, England, Germany, Canada, Scotland and Northern Ireland [4][5][6][7][8] for promotions such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, British Championship Wrestling, Outback Championship Wrestling, Dragon Gate, Fight Club: PRO, Southside Wrestling Entertainment, Alpha-1 Wrestling, WWNLive, Kamikaze Pro, Premier British Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Ulster.[9]
Title history
| 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 | BxB Hulk | November 28, 2009 | Freedom Fight 2009 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1 | 426 | 7 | Defeated CIMA, Gran Akuma and YAMATO in a four-way elimination tournament final match. | [2] |
| 2 | Yamato | January 28, 2011 | United: NYC | New York, New York | 1 | 289 | 6 | [10] | |
| 3 | Johnny Gargano | November 13, 2011 | Freedom Fight 2011 | New York, New York | 1 | 873 | 22 | [11] | |
| 4 | Ricochet | April 4, 2014 | Open the Ultimate Gate 2014 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 1 | 226 | 5 | [12] | |
| 5 | Johnny Gargano | November 16, 2014 | WWNLive in China | Peking, China | 2 | 132 | 3 | [13] | |
| 6 | Drew Galloway | March 28, 2015 | Mercury Rising 2015 | San Jose, California | 1 | 104 | 5 | This match was also contested for Galloway's Evolve Championship. | [14][15] |
| 7 | Timothy Thatcher | July 10, 2015 | Evolve 45 | Tampa, Florida | 1 | 36 | 0 | This match was also contested for the Evolve Championship. | [16][17] |
| — | Deactivated | August 15, 2015 | Evolve 47 | Queens, New York | — | — | — | Thatcher handed the title to Johnny Gargano, rendering it vacant and inactive. | [1] |
Combined reigns
| Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johnny Gargano | 2 | 25 | 1,005 |
| 2 | BxB Hulk | 1 | 7 | 426 |
| 3 | Yamato | 6 | 289 | |
| 4 | Ricochet | 5 | 226 | |
| 5 | Drew Galloway | 5 | 104 | |
| 6 | Timothy Thatcher | 0 | 36 |