NWA World Welterweight Championship

The NWA World Welterweight Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Mundial Welter de NWA) is a professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and currently promoted by NWA Mexico. The championship was originally created by the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in 1949. The promotion had control of the championship from 1946 until 1996 and again from 2007 until 2010. From 1996 until 2007 the championship was promoted mainly in Japan, first as one of eight championships that made up the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) J-Crown Championship. After the J-Crown was discontinued the title remained in Japan being promoted by the Toryumon promotion up until 2007 when it returned to Mexico and CMLL. CMLL was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance up until the late 1980s, but chose to keep the championship and the NWA prefix after leaving the NWA. As it is a professional wrestling championship, its holders are determined by promoters or promotions, not by athletic competition. 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.

The championship predates the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948 and was initially known simply as the "World Welterweight Championship", promoted by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). When EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1952, the title was given the NWA prefix. 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 the promotion. The other two were the NWA World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. All continued to be billed as "Campeonatos de NWA".

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 recently created the CMLL World Welterweight Championship and thus did not promote the championship for three years. Negro Casas defeated El Hijo del Santo in a tournament final as CMLL brought the championship back in the winter of 1995. The following August Casas was one of eight champions to compete in a 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 changed hands outside of Mexico. The championship 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 championship was defended as part of the J-Crown until the J-Crown was broken up into the original individual championships, after which 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 in Torymon's Mexican branch. On November 27, 2007 CMLL wrestler La Sombra won 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 NWA Mexico) 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 a previous occasion. CMLL ignored both requests; the NWA Welterweight Champion, Mephisto, commented instead 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 CMLL made the last CMLL-promoted NWA World Welterweight champion, Averno, the first NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion. On June 22, 2011, Cassandro became the first NWA Mexico-promoted Welterweight Champion as he defeated Dr. Cerebro on a show in London, England.

El Santo became the first NWA World Welterweight Champion by winning an eight man tournament when he defeated Pete Pancoff in the finals. Akantus is the current NWA World Welterweight champion, having defeated Impostor Jr. to win the title on April 24, 2016. Akantus is 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, both held the championship for one day as part of the J-Crown tournament.