Date established February 27, 1999 Date won March 4, 2016 Most reigns Virus (4 reigns) | Current champion(s) Dragon Lee First champion(s) Masatu Yakushiji | |
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Promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre | ||
The CMLL World Lightweight Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Mundial de Peso Ligero del CMLL) is a professional wrestling world championship promoted by the Mexican Lucha Libre wrestling-based promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Originally CMLL promoted the "Super Lightweight" division as part of their expansion into Japan from 1999 until 2000 and later reintroduced the division in 2003 as the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship was used by CMLL in Mexico. During Máscara Dorada reign with the title between 2009 and 2011 the name was changed to be the CMLL Lightweight Championship instead.
Contents
Dragon Lee is the current CMLL World Lightweight Champion after defeating Kamaitachi for the championship on March 4, 2016. Dragon Lee is the 15th overall champion and is a two-time champion. The first CMLL Japan Super Lightweight Champion was Masatu Yakushiji, who won it on February 27. 1999.
Background
In 1999 CMLL began to tour Japan, promoting a series of wrestling shows under the name "CMLL Japan". The shows featured a mixture of CMLL and native Japanese wrestlers On February 27, 1999, they held a one night tournament to determine who would be the first ever CMLL Japan Super Lightweight Championship, making the first time in the history of CMLL that they had a championship specifically for that weight class. The tournament finale saw the Japanese Masato Yakushiji defeat CMLL wrestler Rencor Latino to become the first ever champion. Over the following year CMLL promoted additional shows in Japan and had CMLL wrestler Virus win the championship from Yakushiji. Subsequently Virus and Mexican Ricky Marvin, who worked for a number of Japanese promotions at the time, exchanged the title over the fall of 2000, the last title change taking place in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico after the final CMLL Japan tour had ended. The championship was discontinued by the end of 2000 as CMLL abandoned future plans to promote shows in Japan.
In 2003 CMLL reinstated the Super Lightweight division after a series of very well-received matches between the Southern California team of the Havana Brothers (Havana Brother I, Havana Brother II and Havana Brother I) and the CMLL team of Ricky Marvin, Virus and Volador, Jr.. CMLL announced that they were establishing the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, elevating the division from a regional to a "World" level championship. CMLL held a torneo cibernetico elimination match, which included the Havana Brothers, Sangre Azteca, Ricky Marvin, Virus, Volador, Jr. Super Comando, Loco Max, Tigre Blanco, Neutro and Sombra de Plata. Havana Brother I (a masked Rocky Romero) the match and the tournament by eliminating Volador, Jr. A few months later Virus defeated Romero for the title, after which the Havana Brothers stopped working for CMLL on a regular basis. For the following year the title was not defended, nor hardly promoted by CMLL until Rocky Romero returned to the promotion. This time, Romero worked unmasked, but CMLL acknowledged his previous title reign as part of a buildup to a championship rematch between Romero and Virus. Romero became a two-time champion on December 10, 2004, but stopped working for CMLL shortly after the match. CMLL made no attempts to regain the title and Romero would on occasion work on the Southern California independent circuit as the Super Lightweight Champion. In 2005 he lost the championship to Tommy Williams in a match that received no mainstream coverage and the title change was only made public when they promoted a rematch between Williams and Romero. Romero regained the title from Tommy Williams but never defended it afterwards, nor did he work for CMLL in 2006 or 2007. When Romero did return to CMLL in 2008 it was an enmascarado, or masked character called "Grey Shadow" with no public acknowledgment of his past with CMLL.
The championship was not officially declared vacant until Romero left CMLL to work for their rival Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion (AAA) and quickly announced a tournament to crown a new champion. On April 7, 2009 Máscara Dorada won a torneo cibernetico elimination match to win the Super Lightweight championship. During Máscara Dorada's reign the weight class was adjusted to be the "Lightweight" division instead of the "Super Lightweight" division. In 2011 Dorada vacated the championship as he was moving up to the Middleweight division instead. Virus became a four-time Champion on June 7, 2011 by defeating Guerrero Maya Jr. in a tournament final, making him the only wrestler to have held all three versions of the championship.
Reigns
Dragon Lee is the current champion in his second reign, after defeating Kamaitachi on March 4, 2016, to win the title. Eight different wrestlers have held the championship for 15 reigns in total. Virus holds the record for most reigns, four; two in Japan and two in Mexico. His four reigns combine to 2,046 days, more than any other champion and his fourth reign lasted a total of 1,398 days the longest individual reign. Ricky Marvin had the shortest individual reign, lasting somewhere between 1 day and 7001320000000000000♠32 days.
Rules
The championship was originally a "Super Lightweight" championship, which in lucha libre is between 70 kg (150 lb) and 73 kg (161 lb); later on it was modified to be for the Lightweight division, which is between 63 kg (139 lb) and 70 kg (150 lb). CMLL has at times ignored the weight limit, promoting champions such as Dragon Lee who was billed as weighing 75 kg (165 lb) when he won the championship. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won legitimately; its holders are determined by promoters or promotions, not by athletic competition.