CMLL World Middleweight Championship

CMLL World Middleweight Championship

A Mexican professional wrestler during an outdoor wrestling event

Negro Casas, the 12th and 15th champion
Details
Current champion(s) Dragón Rojo Jr.
Date won November 18, 2011[1]
Date established December 18, 1991[2]
Promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre

The CMLL World Middleweight Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Mundial peso Medio de CMLL) is a professional wrestling world championship promoted by the Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). While lighter weight classes are regularly ignored in wrestling promotions in the United States, with most emphasis placed on "heavyweights", more emphasis is placed on the lighter classes in Mexican companies. The official definition of the Middleweight division in Mexico is a person between 82 kg (181 lb) and 87 kg (192 lb), but the weight limits are not strictly adhered to in recent years. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won or lost competitively but instead, by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The title is awarded to a wrestler after he "wins" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.

The current CMLL World Middleweight Champion is Dragón Rojo Jr., having held the title since November 11, 2011, which make him the longest reigning champion in the history of the championship. Since its creation in 1991, there have been 17 individual championship reigns shared between 12 wrestlers. El Dandy is the only wrestler to hold the championship three times and Apolo Dantés had the shortest reign of any champion, 77 days.

History

Closeup of a masked wrestler yelling; his mask has skull and horns markings on it
Averno, the 13th CMLL World Middleweightweight Champion

The middleweight division was one of the first weight divisions in Mexican Lucha libre to have a specific championship as the Mexican National Middleweight Championship was created in 1933.[3][4] When the Mexican Professional wrestling promotion Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ("Mexican Wrestling Enterprise"; EMLL) was founded in September 1933 they became one of several Mexican promotions to promote the championship.[3] EMLL later created the "World Middleweight Championship to represent the highest level prize of the middleweight division, higher than the Mexican National Middleweight Championship.[3][5] In 1952 EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance, which mean the title was renamed the NWA World Middleweight Championship.[5]

In the late 1980s EMLL left the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) to avoid the politics of the NWA and by 1991 they changed their name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre ("World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) to distance themselves from the NWA.[6] While they left the NWA the promotion kept using the NWA World Middleweight Championship as it had originated in EMLL. Following their name change CMLL decided to create a series of CMLL-branded world championships, including adding the CMLL World Middleweight Championship, the third middleweight championship in the promotion.[3][5][2] CMLL held a one-night, eight-man tournament to determine the first middleweight champion on December 18, 1991. The tournament final saw Blue Panther defeat El Satánico to become the first CMLL World Middleweight Champion.[2]

In June 1992 Blue Panther was one of may CMLL wrestlers that left the company to join the newly formed Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), leaving the CMLL World Middleweight Championship vacant. CMLL held a 16-man battle royal match to reduce the field to two finalists. El Dandy and Negro Casas survived the match and a week later El Dandy defeated Casas to become the second CMLL World Middleweight Champion.[1][2] The championship has not been vacated since then.[2][7][8][9][10][11][12]

The exodus from CMLL to AAA also meant that CMLL lost control of the Mexican National Middleweight Championship as then-reigning champion Octagón was among the wrestlers that left the promotion. The Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission allowed AAA to take control of the Mexican National Middleweight Championship at that point in time.[3] On August 12, 2010, CMLL returned the NWA World Middleweight Championship to the NWA, but immediately replaced it with the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship to keep two "world" level championships in the middleweight division.[13] On May 3, 2010 Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Negro Casas to win the championship. The match took place in Fukuoka, Fukuaka prefecture, Japan, which was the first time the middleweight championship changed hands outside of Mexico and also marked the first time a non-Mexican wrestler held the championship.[12]

Reigns

Picture of a masked Japanese wrestler wearing an elaborate red mask with horns.
Jushin Thunder Liger, the only Japanese wrestler to hold the championship.

Dragón Rojo Jr. is the current champion having won the title on November 18, 2011 from Jushin Thunder Liger.[1] This is Dragón Rojo Jr.'s first reign as middleweight champion, he is the 17th overall champion and also the wrestler who has held the championship the longest, at 1,632 days and counting.[1] El Dandy holds the record for most CMLL World Middleweight Championship reigns with three and is one of only three wrestlers to hold the title more than once, the others being Negro Casas and Emilio Charles Jr.[1][2][7][8][9][10][11][12] Apolo Dantés held the title the shortest amount of time, a total of 77 days.[2]

Rules

The official definition of the middleweight division in Mexico is from 82 kg (181 lb) and 87 kg (192 lb).[14] In the 20th century CMLL were generally consistent and strict about enforcing the actual weight limits.[15] However in the 21st century the official definitions has at times been overlooked for certain champions. One example of this was when Mephisto, officially listed as 90 kg (200 lb), won the CMLL World Welterweight Championship, a weight class with a 82 kg (181 lb) upper limit.[8][14]

With a total of twelve CMLL promoted championships being labeled as "World" title the promotional focus shifts from championship to championship over time with no single championship being promoted as the "main" championship of the promotion. Championship matches usually take place under best two-out-of-three falls rules.[6] On occasion single fall title matches have taken place, especially when promoting CMLL title matches in Japan, conforming to the traditions of the local promotion, illustrated when Jushin Thunder Liger won the championship during New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestling Dontaku 2010 in a single fall match.[12]

Tournaments

1991

Masked wrestler Blue Panther on the mat during a wrestling match.
Tournament winner Blue Panther

In 1991, CMLL held an eight-man, one-night tournament to crown the first ever CMLL World Middleweight champion. In the end Blue Panther won the championship by defeating El Satánico.[2]

Semifinals   Final   Final
                   
 Blue Panther W  
 Ringo Mendoza        Blue Panther W  
 Espectro Jr.      El Dandy    
 El Dandy W        Blue Panther W
 Ángel Azteca W        El Satánico  
 Emilio Charles Jr.        Ángel Azteca  
 El Satánico W    El Satánico W  
 El Hijo de Gladiador    

1992

Due to a large number of CMLL wrestlers leaving in the summer of 1992 the championship was vacated, forcing CMLL to hold a tournament. The opted to start out with a 16-man battle royal elimination match as a means to qualify for the final match the following week. Negro Casas and El Dandy outlasted a field of wrestlers that included Guerrero Maya, Águila Solitaria, Ponzona, Guerrero del Futuro, Plata, Espectro de Ultratumba, Espectro Jr., Oro, Javier Cruz, Kung Fu, Kato Kung Lee, Ringo Mendoza, Bestia Salvaje and Último Dragón.[2] The following week El Dandy defeated casas to start his first of three championship reigns.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 González, Fernando (2011-11-19). "Dragón Rojo Jr., nuevo Campeón peso Medio del CMLL". Récord (in Spanish). Retrieved 2011-11-20.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: EMLL CMLL Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 395. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Middleweight Championship". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania, USA: Archeus Communications. p. 392. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  4. ↑ "Los Reyes de Mexico: La Historia de Los Campeonatos Nacionales". Lucha 2000 (in Spanish) (Mexico City, Mexico). 2004-12-20. Especial 21.
  5. 1 2 3 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  6. 1 2 Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?" and "El Médico Asasino"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. New York, New York: HarperColins Publisher. pp. 29–40 and 114–118. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  7. 1 2 "2001: Los Campeones". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 13, 2002. pp. 15–17. 2540.
  8. 1 2 3 "Número Especial – Lo mejr de la lucha ilbre mexicana durante el 2004". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 24, 2005. 91.
  9. 1 2 Manuel Rivera (January 23, 2006). "Averno el Campeon!". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). pp. 10–11. 180.
  10. 1 2 "Ahora es doble monarca" (in Spanish). Esto, OEM Online. July 22, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  11. 1 2 Ruiz Glez, Alex (February 15, 2010). "Negro Casas nuevo campeón Mundial Medio del CMLL". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved February 16, 2010.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Flores, Manuel (May 3, 2010). "Jushin Liger, nuevo campeón mundial medio del CMLL – Nakamura pierde el título IWGP". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Número Especial - Lo mejr de la lucha ilbre mexicana durante el 2004". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 12, 2011. 399.
  14. 1 2 Arturo Montiel Rojas (2001-08-30). "Reglamento de Box y Lucha Libre Professional del Estado de Mexico" (PDF) (in Spanish). Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2006. Retrieved 2009-04-03. Articulo 242: "Super Welter 82 kilos / Medio 87 kilos"
  15. ↑ Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: EMLL CMLL". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 395–410. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.

External links

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