Last week, WWE Evolve Women’s champion Kendal Grey said farewell to the newest level of the company’s developmental program. Before moving up to NXT, Grey left her title vacant after a successful defense.
This week, it was Jackson Drake’s turn. Drake and his Vanity Project boys have been appearing on Tuesday nights for a while, and new Evolve General Manager Foreman Timothy Thatcher agreed to give “The Dime Piece” Aaron Rourke the final shot at Jackson’s Evolve championship before he heads to NXT full-time.
On the independents, Rourke was also known as “Evil Gay”. When he joined WWE ID (which stands for Independent Development, and serves as the entry level for most talent from the indie scene) in November 2024, he was the program’s first out LGBTQ signee.
After the episode of Evolve that premiered Weds., March 18 on Tubi, Rourke is Evolve’s first openly gay champion.
Darren Young, who now works under his legal name Fred Rosser, won the WWE Tag titles with Titus O’Neil in 2015, two years after coming out in an interview made him the first openly gay WWE wrestler. Inaugural Intercontinental champion Pat Patterson’s sexuality was known in the business (despicably so, some allege), but he wasn’t out to the public until Legends House premiered on WWE Network in 2014. Given that, his brief 24/7 championship reign would technically be the first singles title won by an out gay man in WWE. Seems fair to count Rourke’s win though, at least to this blogger.