The NWA World Welterweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). For the majority of its existence, the title has been promoted by Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where it was known as the Campeonato Mundial Welter de NWA. It has also been used by New Japan Pro Wrestling, and was part of its J-Crown Championship. After the J-Crown was discontinued the title remained in Japan being promoted by the Toryumon promotion up until 2007 where it returned to Mexico and CMLL. As with the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Middleweight Championship, it is not currently recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance, having ceased to acknowledge it when CMLL withdrew from the NWA in the late-1980s. Being a professional wrestling championship, it is not won legitimately; it is instead won via a scripted ending to matches. The official definition of the Welterweight weight class in Mexico is between 150 lbs (70 kg) and 170 lbs (78 kg), but is not always strictly enforced.
The championship predates the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948 and was initually just known as the "World Welterweight Championship", promoted by Empressa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). When EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1952, the title was given the prefix "NWA". In the late 1980s EMLL withdrew from the NWA, changing their name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre at the same time, to create a clean break from their past NWA association. CMLL retained three NWA-labeled titles, the Welterweight championship, the NWA World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, despite none of them being officially recognized by the NWA. In 1992 the then-champion Misterioso left CMLL to join the newly formed Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, vacating the championship. CMLL had recently created their own Welterweight Title and thus decided not to use the NWA championship for the time being. It would be three years before the NWA Welterweight title was used again, when Negro Casas won the title. A few months later Casas lost the title to Shinjiro Ohtani in the first round of the J-Crown Unification tournament. The title would switch hands in each round of the tournament as Último Dragón won it the next night and then Great Sasuke, who won the tournament. In 1996 and 1997 the title was defended as part of the J-Crown until the J-Crown was broken up into the original individual titles and vacated by the end of 1997. Just over a year later the championship resurfaced in Toryumon where Dragon Kid won it. For the next several years the title became the exclusive property of Toryumon, being defended mainly in Japan and occasionally in Torymon's Mexican branch. It was not until November 27, 2007 that the title returned to its country of origin as La Sombra won the title from Hajime Ohara and brought it back to CMLL. 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 has 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. On August 12, 2010, CMLL debuted the new NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship and returned the old belt to NWA.
El Santo became the first Welterweight Champion on March 15, 1946 by winning an eight-man tournament. Cassandro is the current NWA World Welterweight champion having defeated Dr. Cerebro for the vacant title on June 25, 2011. This is Cassandro's first run with the title; he is the 57th overall champion and the 44th person to hold the Championship. Karloff Lagarde holds the record for both the most title reigns, with three, and the longest individual title reign, 2,742 days. Two men have held the title for just one day: Shinjiro Otani and Último Dragón.
Title history
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
| # | The overall championship reign |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific wrestler listed. |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands |
| N/A | The specific information is not known |
| — | Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign |
| [Note ] | Indicates that the exact length of the title reign is unknown, with a note providing more details. |
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1
|
El Santo
|
1
|
March 15, 1946
|
337 | Mexico City | Live event | Defeated Pete Pancoff to become the first champion. |
| 2
|
Jack O'Brien
|
1
|
February 15, 1947
|
804 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 3
|
Gory Guerrero
|
1
|
April 29, 1949
|
803 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 4
|
Bobby Bonales
|
1
|
July 11, 1951
|
443 | N/A
|
Live event | |
| 5
|
El Santo
|
2
|
September 26, 1952
|
302 | N/A
|
Live event | |
| 6
|
Blue Demon | 1
|
July 25, 1953
|
1912 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 7
|
Karloff Lagarde
|
1
|
January 31, 1958
|
2743 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 8
|
Huracán Ramírez
|
1
|
August 5, 1965
|
50 | Cuernavaca, Morelos | Live event | |
| 9
|
Karloff Lagarde
|
2
|
September 24, 1965
|
590 | Mexico City | EMLL 32nd Anniversary Show | |
| 10
|
Vento Castella
|
1
|
May 7, 1967
|
57 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 11
|
Karloff Lagarde
|
3
|
July 3, 1967
|
1469 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 12
|
Alberto Muñoz
|
1
|
July 11, 1971
|
837 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
1973
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
EMLL vacated the championship for unknown reasons. |
| 13
|
Mano Negra | 1
|
December 14, 1973
|
562 | Mexico City | Live event | Mano Negra defeated Karloff Lagarde to win the vacant title. |
| 14
|
Blue Demon | 2
|
June 29, 1975
|
285 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 15
|
Fishman | 1
|
April 9, 1976
|
224 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 16
|
Mano Negra | 2
|
January 19, 1976
|
1197 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 17
|
Américo Rocca
|
1
|
April 30, 1979
|
264 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 18
|
Kato Kung Lee
|
1
|
January 19, 1980
|
106 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 19
|
El Supremo
|
1
|
May 4, 1980
|
31 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 20
|
Lizmark | 1
|
June 4, 1980
|
506 | Acapulco, Guerrero | Live event | |
| 21
|
La Fiera
|
1
|
October 23, 1981
|
268 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 22
|
Américo Rocca
|
2
|
July 18, 1982
|
558 | Guadalajara, Jalisco | Live event | |
| 23
|
Mocho Cota
|
1
|
January 27, 1984
|
181 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 24
|
Chamaco Valaguez
|
1
|
July 26, 1984
|
359 | Cuernavaca, Morelos | Live event | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
July 20, 1985
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
EMLL vacated the championship for unknown reasons. |
| 25
|
El Dandy
|
1
|
November 17, 1985
|
141 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 26
|
Monarca Cruz
|
1
|
April 7, 1986
|
78 | Monterrey, Nuevo León | Live event | |
| 27
|
El Dandy
|
2
|
August 24, 1986
|
70 | N/A
|
Live event | |
| 28
|
Javier Rocca
|
1
|
November 2, 1986
|
636 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 29
|
Solar II | 1
|
July 30, 1988
|
66 | Cuernavaca, Morelos | Live event | |
| 30
|
Fuerza Guerrera | 1
|
October 4, 1988
|
241 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 31
|
Águila Solitaria
|
1
|
June 2, 1989
|
111 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| 32
|
Fuerza Guerrera | 2
|
September 21, 1989
|
806 | Puebla, Puebla | Live event | |
| 33
|
Misterioso | 1
|
December 6, 1991
|
{{sort|147 | Mexico City | Live event | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
May 1992
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship was vacated when Misterioso left CMLL. |
| 34
|
Negro Casas
|
1
|
December 1, 1995
|
246 | Mexico City | Live event | Negro Casas defeated El Hijo del Santo in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
| 35
|
Shinjiro Otani
|
1
|
August 3, 1996
|
1 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | |
| 36
|
Último Dragón
|
1
|
August 4, 1996
|
1 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | |
| 37
|
Great Sasuke | 1
|
August 5, 1996
|
67 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | The championship became one of eight championships comprising New Japan Pro Wrestling's J-Crown Championship. |
| 38
|
Último Dragón
|
2
|
October 11, 1996
|
85 | Osaka, Japan | Live event | |
| 39
|
Jushin Liger
|
1
|
January 4, 1997
|
183 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | |
| 40
|
El Samurai
|
1
|
July 6, 1997
|
35 | Sapporo, Japan | Live event | |
| 41
|
Shinjiro Otani
|
2
|
August 10, 1997
|
56 | Nagoya, Japan | Live event | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
October 5, 1997
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
Otani vacated five of the six remaining J-Crown titles after being forced by the World Wrestling Federation to return their Light Heavyweight Championship belt, ending the J-Crown Championship. |
| 41
|
Dragon Kid | 1
|
February 6, 1999
|
78 | Nagoya, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | Dragon Kid defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the vacant title. |
| 42
|
Judo Suwa
|
1
|
April 25, 1999
|
454 | Kawasaki, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 43
|
Keni'chiro Arai
|
1
|
July 22, 2000
|
152 | Tokyo, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
December 21, 2000
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship vacated due after outside interference during a match on December 15 in Kawasaki, Japan, in which Susumu Mochizuki defeated Arai. |
| 44
|
Keni'chiro Arai
|
2
|
January 29, 2001
|
118 | Tokyo, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | Arai defeated Yasushi Kanda in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
| 44
|
Susumu Mochizuki
|
1
|
May 27, 2001
|
126 | Kobe, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 46
|
Ryo Saito
|
1
|
September 30, 2001
|
210 | Tokyo, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 47
|
Genki Horiguchi
|
1
|
April 28, 2002
|
56 | Kobe, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
June 23, 2002
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship was vacated following a no-contest between Horiguchi and Dragon Kid. |
| 48
|
Ricky Marvin
|
1
|
July 7, 2002
|
17 | Kobe, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | Ricky Marvin defeated Super Nova to win the vacant championship. |
| 49
|
Genki Horiguchi
|
2
|
July 24, 2002
|
4 | Kumamoto, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 50
|
Darkness Dragon
|
1
|
July 28, 2002
|
236 | Shimonoseki, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
March 21, 2003
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship was vacated due to an injury to Darkness Dragon. |
| 51
|
YOSSINO
|
1
|
March 22, 2003
|
456 | Sapporo, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | YOSSINO defeated Genki Horiguchi to win the vacant title. |
| —
|
Vacated | 1
|
June 20, 2004
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship was vacated BY YOSSINO in order to for him to concentrate on the Toryumon Último Dragón Gym Championship. |
| 52
|
Hajime Ohara
|
1
|
May 13, 2006
|
252 | Mexico City | Toryumon Mexico show | Ohara defeated La Máscara to win the vacant title. |
| 53
|
Super Delfin
|
1
|
January 20, 2007
|
21 | Osaka, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 54
|
Hajime Ohara
|
2
|
February 10, 2007
|
290 | Osaka, Japan | Toryumon Japan show | |
| 55
|
La Sombra
|
1
|
November 27, 2007
|
547 | Mexico City | CMLL show | This victory brought the championship back under CMLL's control. |
| 56
|
Mephisto | 1
|
May 27, 2009
|
442 | Acapulco, Guerrero | CMLL show | |
| —
|
Vacated | —
|
August 12, 2010
|
— | N/A
|
N/A
|
The championship was vacated when CMLL returned it to NWA. |
| 57
|
Cassandro
|
1
|
June 25, 2011
|
4682+ | London, United Kingdom | NWA Mexico UK Tour live event | Defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the vacant title. |
