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57-686: The championship predates the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948 and was initially called the World Welterweight Championship, promoted by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). When EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1952, the NWA prefix was added. In the late 1980s, EMLL withdrew from the NWA and changed its name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). CMLL retained ownership of three NWA-branded championships which originated in

114-507: A black leather mask , and Lutteroth dubbed him La Maravilla Enmascarada or "The Masked Marvel". In the United States the concept of the masked wrestler was more of a mid-level attraction, but the reaction to La Maravilla Enmascarada led to Lutteroth and EMLL officials to introduce more masks, starting with a wrestler known simply as El Enmascarado ("The Masked Wrestler"), and later El Murciélago Enmascarado ("The Masked Bat"). Through

171-586: A few scattered local promoters, especially along the U.S. border, who brought in American professional wrestlers as their main attractions. In 1929, Salvador Lutteroth González , who at the time was a property inspector for the Mexican tax department, moved to Ciudad Juárez , near the Mexico–United States border . During a trip to El Paso, Texas , Lutteroth witnessed a professional wrestling show and

228-547: A man who go on to become a cultural icon in Mexico and is often cited as the greatest Mexican wrestler of all time. With the popularity of El Santo as well as other Mexican stars such as Bobby Bonales , Tarzán López , Cavernario Galindo and Gory Guerrero Arena Modelo eventually became too small to accommodate the demand for tickets. To solve the problem Lutteroth financed the construction of Arena Coliseo in Mexico City,

285-551: A number of local wrestling promoters across Mexico, allowing them to use the EMLL name and some of their contracted wrestlers while also gaining access to local wrestlers in return. Each booking office was independent of each other, but the main office in Mexico City had the final say if there were disputes over who would be able to book certain wrestlers. In 1942, a masked wrestler clad in silver, simply known as El Santo ("the Saint"),

342-517: A previous occasion. CMLL ignored both requests completely, with Mephisto, the NWA Welterweight Champion, responding that "the championships belong to CMLL", thus the NWA could not vacate them. On August 12, 2010, CMLL unveiled the new NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship to replace the original championship, which it conceded to NWA Mexico. The CMLL made the last CMLL-promoted NWA World Welterweight champion, Averno ,

399-433: A regular basis since the 1930s. Founder Salvador Lutteroth funded the building of Arena Coliseo in 1943, making it the first building in Mexico built specifically for professional wrestling. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Prior to 1933, lucha libre shows in Mexico were primarily promoted by foreign promoters doing the occasional match through Mexico or

456-547: A rule illustrated in 2015 where L.A. Park was fired from the promotion only three weeks after returning due to a profanity-laden rant during a CMLL show. CMLL's main programming, hosted by Alfonso Morales, Leobardo Magadan and Miguel Linares, is broadcast regularly on Televisa in Mexico, on LATV in the United States, and formerly on Telelatino in Canada and The Wrestling Channel in the United Kingdom. CMLL also had

513-639: A syndicated show called "Sin Limite de Tiempo" ("with no time limit") which shows matches from Arena Coliseo shows and matches they could not fit onto the regular broadcast. It aired in Los Angeles on KWHY and Also Air in San Francisco on KEMO-TV . This show was followed up by "Guerreros del Ring" on Canal 52MX. Also, Spanish-language American sports channel Fox Sports en Español recently started broadcasting CMLL programming. Recently CMLL also added

570-584: A video was posted on YouTube featuring an interview David Marquez had with NWA Executive Director and Legal Counsel Robert Trobich . Trobich announced that CMLL did not have permission to use the NWA trademark. The rights to usage of the NWA trademark in Mexico is now held by NWA Mexico, represented by Blue Demon, Jr. CMLL replaced the three championships with the NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship , NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship and

627-696: A working relationship with CMLL. CMLL regularly runs six shows on five days in a week. The biggest weekly show is the Friday night Super Viernes ("Super Friday") show, held in the famous Arena Mexico in Mexico City. CMLL runs also shows on Saturdays in Arena Coliseo , on Sundays in Arena Mexico, on Mondays in Arena Puebla , and on Tuesdays in Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. The Friday and Tuesday shows are also televised. Of all

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684-733: A working relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling as part of "G-1 World", several wrestlers have since toured between the two companies winning titles, including Místico winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and Jushin Thunder Liger winning the CMLL Universal Championship tournament. Since 2011, the two promotions have annually co-promoted events in Japan, under the name Fantastica Mania . In 2011, CMLL established

741-403: A working relationship with American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). The two promotions were linked through their separate relationships with NJPW. The alliance with ROH ended on April 27, 2021. On July 7, 2019, CMLL announced the death of the president of the company Paco Alonso (who died a day before, on July 6). On July 10, CMLL appointed Sofía Alonso , Paco's daughter, as the president of

798-630: A working relationship with Japanese women's promotion Universal Woman's Pro Wrestling Reina and announced that the two promotions would create a new championship for women who have been in the professional wrestling industry for less than ten years, called the CMLL-Reina International Junior Championship . This was followed by the establishment of the CMLL-Reina International Championship one year later. On March 16, 2010,

855-545: Is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City . The promotion was previously known as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) ( Mexican Wrestling Enterprise ). Founded in 1933, it is the oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence. CMLL currently recognizes and promotes 12 World Championships in various weight divisions and classifications, six national level and six regional level championships. The CMLL Anniversary Show series

912-641: Is the longest-running annual major show, starting in 1934, with the CMLL 91st Anniversary Show being the most recent. CMLL also regularly promotes major events under the names Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to two legends"), Sin Piedad ("No Mercy"), Sin Salida ("No Escape"), Infierno en el Ring ("Inferno in the Ring") during the year. CMLL has promoted their regular weekly Super Viernes ("Super Friday") on

969-465: The Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to Two Legends") annual show series. From 2007 to 2009, CMLL had a working relationship with American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , which saw CMLL's Averno , Rey Bucanero , Último Guerrero and Volador Jr. winning the 2008 TNA World X Cup and TNA worker Alex Shelley winning the 2008 CMLL International Grand Prix . In 2008, CMLL established

1026-730: The Mexican National Middleweight Championship . His run with the Mexican National Welterweight Championship lasted 1,859 days in total, from 1957 until April 4, 1962, when he lost the title to Blue Demon. In the early 1960s Lagarde had begun teaming up with René Guajardo and by 1962 they were one of the top teams in Mexico at the time and one of the top five Lucha libre teams of all time. They were collectively known as Los Rebeldes ("The Rebels") and headlined shows all over Mexico while wrestling against some of

1083-757: The Mexican National Welterweight Championship . The following year, on January 31, 1958, Lagarde also won the NWA World Welterweight Championship when he defeated Blue Demon for the championship. With both the Mexican National and the NWA World titles in the welterweight division Largade reigned as the king of the welterweights for several years. On March 24, 1961, Lagarde became a triple champion when he defeated El Santo to win

1140-788: The NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship . On September 19, 2014, CMLL became only the second promotion in the Americas, after WWE , to draw a $ 1 million gate with their 81st Anniversary Show , headlined by a Mask vs. Mask match between Atlantis and Último Guerrero. On November 6, 2014, the promotion made an alliance with the Mexican independent group Lucha Libre Elite to help bring independent wrestlers into CMLL which ended in early 2018. On July 6, 2016, NJPW announced that they would broadcast CMLL Friday shows in their video-streaming service, NJPW World . On August 10, CMLL announced

1197-616: The NWA World Welterweight Championship three times in his career. Lagarde teamed up with René Guajardo to form a tag team known as Los Rebeldes , considered to be one of the top five tag teams in Lucha libre history. Born in Zapotlán de Juárez , Hidalgo , Carlos Lagarde debuted in 1950 in Hidalgo State wrestling under the name Karloff Lagarde. In 1957 he won his first wrestling championship when he defeated Jalisco Gonzalez to win

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1254-434: The NWA World Welterweight Championship . In the early 1950s television became as a viable entertainment medium in Mexico which was set to bolster the popularity of EMLL, but Arena Coliseo was not equipped properly for television transmissions. As it turns out luck was on Lutteroth and EMLL's side as Lutteroth and the personnel at Arena Coliseo bought a lottery ticket worth 5 million Pesos . Lutteroth used his portion of

1311-589: The Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). With the creation of the UWA EMLL faced a rival national promotion for the first time. In the mid-1980s, Chavo Lutteroth II retired, allowing his nephew Paco Alonso , grandson of Chavo Lutteroth I , to take control of EMLL. In the late 1980s, EMLL decided to leave the NWA, seeking to distance themselves from the political wrestling in the National Wrestling Alliance. At that time, EMLL, with

1368-453: The ladder match , CMLL remains much more traditional. They also have strict rules for what they will allow to happen during their shows; on one occasion a match between Dr. Wagner Jr. and L. A. Park during the CMLL 75th Anniversary Show degenerated into a brawl on the floor that was so out of control that both wrestlers were fired by CMLL a short time later. CMLL also has strict rules on what wrestlers can and cannot say during their shows,

1425-465: The 1960s and 1970s. Through his career had faced most of Mexico's top stars of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s including lucha libre legends such as El Santo , El Solitario , Mil Máscaras , Black Shadow , Huracán Ramírez , Gory Guerrero , Ray Mendoza and Perro Aguayo . He was known as the "king of the Welterweight" due to him holding the Mexican National Welterweight Championship four times and

1482-519: The Lagarde / Guajardo duo was at the top of the Mexican wrestling world the duo appeared in one of the many Lucha films produced at the time. They portrayed the enmascarado (masked wrestlers) Ángel and Satán . two of the main protagonists in the 1964 movie Los endemoniados del ring ("The Demons of the Ring"). Lagarde was a second-generation wrestler, although the ring name of his father has not been found documented. His brother wrestled around

1539-409: The Mexican National Welterweight Championship for a fourth time, defeating longtime rival Huracán Ramírez for the title on September 9, 1969. The rivalry with Ramírez extended into the 1970s with Ramírez regaining the title in 1972 and Lagarde winning his fourth and final title from Ramírez on October 20, 1972. Lagarde's final title run ended on August 11, 1973, when he was defeated by El Marque. When

1596-504: The Mexican network Cadena Tres to its list of networks airing CMLL Wrestling. Galavision began airing CMLL wrestling in the spring of 2011. Galavision shows only a one-hour version while LATV has shown a two-hour version. In 2015, several of CMLL's shows became available live on their YouTube channel and they have held a number of internet- Pay Per Views (PPVs). Each year CMLL promotes a number of signature events, some shown as pay-per-view events and others shown on regular television. Over

1653-630: The Mexican-based Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). On July 5, 2023, CMLL announced an alliance with the Arena Coliseo Tony Arellano de Torreón, who at a press conference announced this merger in which they will work on several very ambitious projects. Edgar "güero" Noriega, referee and promoter of this company, attended the press conference directly from the CMLL, for several good news, the first being

1710-659: The US based National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming the official NWA territory for all of Mexico, known as "NWA-EMLL" outside Mexico. By joining the NWA, Lutteroth and EMLL gained control of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship . They were also able to re-brand their "World Middleweight Championship" to become the NWA World Middleweight Championship and their "World Welterweight Championship" became

1767-473: The championship back in the winter of 1995. The following August Casas was one of eight champions to compete in an NJPW-promoted tournament to unify the championships into the J-Crown championship. Casas lost in the first round to Shinjiro Ohtani , marking the first time the championship had changed hands outside Mexico. The championship would switch hands in each round of the tournament as Último Dragón won it

NWA World Welterweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-504: The championship, or leaving the company. All title matches held in Mexico took place under two out of three falls rules. The official definition of the welterweight weight limit in Mexico is 70 kg (150 lb) to 78 kg (172 lb), but promotions have ignored the weight limit at times and crowned champions both heavier and lighter than the rules defined. El Santo became the first NWA World Welterweight Champion by winning an eight-man tournament when he defeated Pete Pancoff in

1881-411: The company. On August 26, it was revealed that Sofía had been relieved of her position, with Salvador "Chavo" Lutteroth III becoming the chairman and CEO of PROMECOR-CMLL. In September 2021, president of Ice Ribbon Hajime Sato appeared alongside Kounosuke Izui, promoter of Lady's Ring, on an episode of CMLL Informa to announce the establishment of a working relationship between the two promotions and

1938-574: The consent of Paco Alonso , the booker Antonio Peña and the Monterrey promoter Carlos Humberto Elizondo, devised the creation of the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council") to establish a new identity after the NWA split, in order to have their own titles and organize promoters who wanted to join, in addition to sounding more international. From 1991 through 1993 CMLL created eight "CMLL World" titles in addition to

1995-418: The day-to-day operations of EMLL leaving the company in the hands of his son Salvador "Chavo" Lutteroth Jr. In 1975, local promoter Francisco Flores , along with EMLL trainer Ray Mendoza broke away from EMLL, citing their displeasure with EMLL's conservative, restrictive promotional style. The two took a number of EMLL's younger wrestlers with them to form Lucha Libre Internacional, S. C , later known as

2052-530: The end CMLL owner Paco Alonso decided to go with Juan Herrera's booking style. After Paco Alonso chose to ignore Peña's booking ideas, Peña began negotiations with Televisa television channel to fund a new wrestling promotion that would provide Televisa with weekly wrestling shows. In 1992 Peña started a booking agency, providing wrestlers and matches for the Televisa owned Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) promotion. While Peña technically owned

2109-580: The finals. In 1992, the then-champion Misterioso left CMLL to join the newly formed Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), vacating the championship as a result. CMLL had created the CMLL World Welterweight Championship in February 1992 as their top welterweight championship, and thus did not crown a new NWA championship for three years. Negro Casas defeated El Hijo del Santo in a tournament final as CMLL brought

2166-459: The first NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion. On June 22, 2011, Cassandro became the first NWA Mexico-promoted Welterweight Champion when he defeated Dr. Cerebro on a show in London , England . Akantus was the most recent NWA World Welterweight champion, having defeated Impostor Jr. to win the title on April 24, 2016, marking the only known championship match in his reign. Akantus

2223-439: The first arena in Mexico built specifically for professional wrestling and the first sports building in Mexico to have built in air conditioning. The arena, nicknamed the "Lagunilla Funnel" due to its interior shape would hold over 8,800 spectators when configured for Lucha libre or boxing. Arena Coliseo began hosting EMLL's annual Anniversary shows starting with the 10th Anniversary show . In 1953, Salvador Lutteroth joined

2280-507: The last couple of years CMLL have held three regular events each year and a number of one off, special events. The Major show, shown in order of when they happen during the year, include: CMLL conducts several annual tournaments which usually signify a big push. Tournaments have been left out of the schedule for unexplained reasons. Some tournaments are conducted as torneo ciberneticos , a large multi-man tag team elimination match, others are normal single elimination tournament. These are all

2337-511: The main bookers for EMLL, helping determine who would win matches, what storylines to use and so on, he was also a driving force behind the name change to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre . Peña would often clash with Juan Herrera, the other main booker for CMLL at the time. Herrera wanted to maintain the old style of booking with heavyweights such as Atlantis , El Dandy and El Satánico , while Peña wanted to feature younger, faster moving wrestlers such as Konnan , Octagón or Máscara Sagrada . In

NWA World Welterweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-492: The major professional wrestling promotions in the world, CMLL is one of the most conservative, having earned the nickname "The serious and the stable" ( La Seria y Estable ) over time. Matches with blood are not broadcast unless it accidentally happens during a live event. CMLL rarely uses specialty or "gimmick matches" outside a limited number of steel cage matches and the occasional Super Libre , no-disqualification matches. While other promotions have adopted matches such as

2451-499: The merger in which this Tony Arellano Arena will be part of the company's programming as it does with the Coliseo de Guadalajara, Puebla, Arena México and Arena Coliseo and now La Laguna is already the headquarters and has been certified. On August 3, 2023, the CMLL and Revolution Pro Wrestling announced their alliance beginning with their first joint event, Fantastica Mania UK. On October 13, 2023, All Elite Wrestling announced

2508-519: The next night and then Great Sasuke won it as he won the tournament. In 1996 and 1997 the championship was defended as part of the J-Crown until it was broken up into the original individual championships. After this it was once again inactive until early 1999 when Dragon Kid became the first Toryumon-promoted champion. From 1999 until 2007 the championship was promoted exclusively by Toryumon, mainly in Japan and occasionally by Torymon's Mexican branch. On November 27, 2007, CMLL wrestler La Sombra won

2565-550: The premier boxing venue in Mexico City , but the promoters would not let him rent it, forcing Lutteroth and EMLL to take up residence in Arena Modelo , an abandoned and run-down facility that Lutteroth was able to use as his home base. The concept of Lucha Libre quickly became very popular, so much so that the EMLL 1st Anniversary Show drew a sold-out crowd of 5,000 paying fans. In 1934, an American wrestler debuted in Mexico under

2622-701: The promotion Televisa owns the rights to the AAA name. In a move that mirrored Flores' departure in the 1970s Peña left the promotion alongside a number of young wrestlers who were unhappy with their position in the promotion. With the creation of AAA the promotion replaced the UWA as Mexico's other main wrestling promotion, creating a long running rivalry between CMLL and AAA. Starting in 1996 CMLL began promoting an annual show in March, first paying homage to Salvador Lutteroth, then later Lutteroth and El Santo and then finally becoming

2679-437: The promotion, the other two being the NWA World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship . All continued to be billed as "Campeonatos de NWA" (NWA Championships). On occasion, a promotion declared the championship vacant, which meant there was no champion at that point in time. This was either due to a storyline or real-life issues such as a champion suffering an injury and being unable to defend

2736-405: The same time as Lagarde was active, although the family relationship was not publicly known at the time, his brother wrestled as the masked "Ángel Negro" ("Black Angel"). Lagarde's nephew is also a professional wrestler as well, working under the ring name Karloff Lagarde, Jr. as a tribute to his uncle. It is not an uncommon practice in Mexico to become a "Junior" without being actually the son of

2793-443: The three NWA branded titles they retained and a slew of other championships. At the start of the 1990s the company began appearing on the national Televisa network, which led to a second big boom in business due to the renewed national television exposure, in the mid-1970s through the 1980s, magazines and newspapers were the sole medium of Lucha Libre for most Mexicans. In the mid-1980s, retired wrestler Antonio Peña became one of

2850-543: The title from Hajime Ohara on a Toryumon Mexico show, bringing the championship back under the control of CMLL. In March 2010, Blue Demon Jr. , the president of NWA Mexico, demanded that CMLL (a non-member of the NWA) cease promoting the NWA-branded championships, declaring that all three championships had been vacated as far as the NWA was concerned. NWA Mexico had already tried to reclaim CMLL's three NWA-branded titles on

2907-577: The title in September and held it for 590 days before Vento Castella defeated him for the belt. Lagarde's third and final reign as NWA World Welterweight champion began only two months after Castella had won the title and lasted for 1,469 days making Lagarde the person to have held the NWA World Welterweight Championship the longest with 4,802 days in total, over 2,000 days more than the second longest. In 1969 Lagarde won

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2964-681: The top Tecnicos (good guys) at the time such as El Santo, Blue Demon and Rayo de Jalisco . They held the Mexican National Tag Team Championship at least once between 1962 and 1967. On April 28, 1962, Lagarde regained the Mexican National Welterweight Championship from Blue Demon, but vacated the title the following year to focus on defending the NWA World Welterweight Championship and teaming with Guajardo. Lagarde's marathon reign as NWA World Welterweight Champion ended on August 5, 1965, 2743 days after winning it, when he lost to Huracán Ramírez . Lagarde regained

3021-425: The tournament that have been held in the past by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre but have not been promoted in the last two years. Domestic: International (current): Worldwide : International (former): Karloff Lagarde Carlos Delucio Lagarde (July 27, 1928 – August 31, 2007) is best known as Karloff Lagarde , a Mexican Luchador , or professional wrestler , who was immensely popular during

3078-462: The use of the masks and ring characters EMLL helped create the sacred position of the mask in Lucha libre , making it the ultimate status symbol for luchadors . In the early days of EMLL, most of the top names were Americans, but with time EMLL introduced several Mexican natives that became so popular that they began to main-event most of the EMLL shows. To expand their business, EMLL began working with

3135-553: The winnings to finance the construction of Arena México , on the location where Arena Modelo used to sit. Arena México enabled EMLL to broadcast their weekly wrestling shows across Mexico, yielding a popularity explosion for the sport. Starting in 1956, with the EMLL 23rd Anniversary Show all anniversary shows were held in Arena México, except the EMLL 46th Anniversary Show . Over time the arena became known as "The Cathedral of Lucha Libre". Over time, Lutteroth retired from

3192-519: Was intrigued by it, especially the main event, Greek wrestler Gus Pappas. Four years later, Lutteroth, along with his financial backer Francisco Ahumada, chartered Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL; literally "Mexican Wrestling Enterprise"), the first Mexican-owned wrestling promotion in the country. EMLL held their first show on September 21, 1933, considered the "birth of Lucha libre", and which led to Lutteroth being known as "the father of Lucha Libre". EMLL initially tried to book Arena Nacional,

3249-620: Was the 63rd overall champion and the 47th person to hold the Championship. Karloff Lagarde and Américo Rocca are tied for the most title reigns, a total of three, while Lagarde holds the record for the longest individual title reign, 2,742 days from 1958 until 1965. Two men have held the title for just one day: Shinjiro Otani and Último Dragón. Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., Ltd. ( CMLL ; Spanish pronunciation: [konˈsexo munˈdjal de ˈlutʃa ˈliβɾe] , "World Wrestling Council")

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