NWA_World_Light_Heavyweight_Championship

NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship

NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship

Professional wrestling championship

Not to be confused with NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

The NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). For the majority of its existence the title was promoted by Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where it was known in Spanish as the Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de NWA. It began as an official National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) title and was given to the NWA's Mexican affiliate, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL, later CMLL), to control. The title was also promoted in NWA Hollywood Wrestling until Hollywood Wrestling's closure in 1982. The title remained under the control of EMLL even after EMLL pulled out of the NWA and changed its name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Due to its history, it was considered one of the most important titles in EMLL/CMLL.[1][2] As it was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won legitimately; it was instead won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. The official definition of the light heavyweight weight class in Mexico is between 92 kg (203 lb) and 97 kg (214 lb), but this was not always strictly enforced.[Note 1][3]

Quick Facts Details, Promotion ...

The first champion was "Gypsy Joe" Dorsetti, who won the title on November 6, 1952. In 1957 the NWA stripped Frank Stojack of the title for lack of NWA-mandated title defenses, but Stojack kept the physical belt and defended the title for over a year until the NWA regained possession of the actual Championship belt. (Edit: The NWA never regained possession of the actual belt. The actual original belt is in the possession of a private collector.) After Stojack was stripped of the title, the NWA executive board decided to give Salvador Lutteroth and Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre control of the championship in 1958.[4] The first champion under Lutteroth's authority was Dory Dixon, who had worked for EMLL for many years. During the late 1970s and early 1980s the title was also defended in the Los Angeles area; after the 1980s, the title was only defended in Mexico.

In March 2010, Blue Demon, Jr., the president of NWA Mexico, sent letters to CMLL, telling them to stop promoting the NWA-branded championships since they were not part of the NWA. NWA Mexico had previously tried to reclaim the three NWA-branded championships promoted by CMLL, but was ignored by CMLL. The promotion did not directly respond to the latest claim either; the NWA Welterweight Champion, Mephisto, commented, simply stating that the titles belonged to CMLL.[5] Finally, on August 12, 2010, CMLL debuted the new NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship and returned the old title to NWA.[6] In 2013, NWA Mexico crowned its first recognized World Light Heavyweight Champion, with Súper Nova winning the vacant title. Súper Nova has not defended the title since 2014, with the championship being de facto retired.

There have been a total of 65 reigns shared between 40 wrestlers. Ray Mendoza has held the Championship the highest number of times with six title reigns; Gory Guerrero's two reigns combined come to 1,963 days, the highest total of any champion. Roddy Piper is the champion with the shortest reign, 2 days; while the longest title reign belongs to Frank Stojack with 1,573 days.

Title history

More information No., Reign ...
More information No., Champion ...

Reigns by combined length

Key
Symbol Meaning
† Indicates the current champion
¤ The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest possible length is used.
+ Indicates that the date changes daily for the current champion.
More information Rank, Wrestler ...

Footnotes

  1. [N 1]
    The most recent case of this was Mephisto's holding the NWA World Welterweight Championship, a belt with a 78 kg (172 lb) upper limit, despite weighing 90 kg (200 lb).
  2. [N 2]
    The exact date on which Ray Mendoza vacated the title is unknown, which means the title reign lasted between 42 and 69 days.
  3. [N 3]
    The exact date on which Tarzan Boy vacated the title is unknown, which means the title reign lasted between 1,031 and 1,069 days.
  4. [N 4]
    The exact date on which Shocker vacates the title is unknown, which means the title reign lasted between 243 and 348 days.

See also

References

General source for title changes before 2000

[G] - Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 389. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.

Specific
  1. [1]
    "Pastor y Luchador / Both a priest and a wrestler". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2005. pp. 191–194. ISBN 968-6842-48-9.
  2. [2]
    Madigan, Dan (2007). "Ángel Blanco". Mondo Lucha a Go-Go: the bizarre and honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 102–105. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  3. [3]
    Arturo Montiel Rojas (August 30, 2001). "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 July 27, 2009. Articulo 242: "Super medio 92 kilos / Semi Completo 97 kilos"
  4. [4]
    Hornbaker, Tim (2007). "Distinguished Wrestling Champions". National Wrestling Alliance: the untold story of the monopoly that strangled pro wrestling. ECW Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-1-55022-741-3.
  5. [5]
    Ruiz Glez, Alex (March 12, 2010). "Mephisto responde a Blue Demon Jr.: "No tengo que entrar a ninguna eliminatoria porque yo soy el campeón..."". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved March 14, 2010.
  6. [6]
    "Campeones" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  7. [7]
    Hoops, Brian (June 29, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history: 2nd Steve Austin WWE title reign begins, infamous Stan Hansen AWA title belt stripping story". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  8. [8]
    Hoops, Brian (June 2, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (June 2): Hogan beats Inoki to win 1st IWGP tourney, HTM's Intercontinental title reign begins". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  9. [9]
    Hoops, Brian (January 20, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/20): HHH returns, wins 2002 Royal Rumble". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  10. [10]
    Centela, Trddy (April 4, 2015). "En un día como hoy… 1981: Sangriento choque Villano III-Kuniaki Kobayashi — Águila India y Gran Cochisse, rapados" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  11. [11]
    Centinela, Teddy (March 12, 2015). "En un día como hoy… 1982: David Morgan, campeón — Se presenta Atsushi Onita — El Fantasma y César Curiel ganan lucha de apuestas". SuperLuchas Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  12. [12]
    Hoops, Brian (January 15, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/15): Big John Studd wins 1989 Royal Rumble". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  13. [13]
    Hoops, Brian (July 28, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (July 28): Lou Thesz wrestles the husband of the world's greatest all-time female athlete". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  14. [14]
    "Número Especial – Lo mejor de la mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana durante el 2003". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 5, 2004. 40.
  15. [15]
    Hoops, Brian (February 9, 2017). "On this day in pro wrestling history (Feb 9): The Midnight Rider defeated Ric Flair". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  16. [16]
    "Número Especial – Lo mejor de la mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana durante el 2004". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 24, 2005. 91.
  17. [17]
    "2005 Lo Mejor de la Lucha Mexicana". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 3, 2006. 140.
  18. [18]
    "Lo Mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana duranted el 2006". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). December 23, 2006. 192. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
  19. [19]
    Ocampo, Jorge (April 13, 2009). "Texanito derrota Atlantis". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). issue 310.
  20. [20]
    "Número Especial - Lo mejor de la mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana durante el 2010". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 12, 2011. 399.
  21. [21]
    "IWRG Zona XXI". Cagematch. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  22. [22]
    Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "New Jersey: NWA Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 53. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
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