CMLL 101 : #4 Champions
A common misconception about CMLL is that their belts aren’t valuable. While yes, a title defense has not headlined a CMLL Anniversary show in 20 years. For the curious that match was in 1996 as CMLL 63rd and was for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Gran Markus Jr.
Still, having a belt means CMLL is going to use you as a highlight talented. You will get more singles matches and will main event Arena shows that happen around the year. Getting your first lightning match is a big deal, but getting your first title match is a HUGE deal. It basically means you’ve graduated from just being a trios guys. Not that being a trios guy is a bad thing, trio matches can be a big deal as well and being a dominant stable is a good thing.
CMLL has 8 Promoted Singles Men world titles, they are all for the most part equal weighted to start. What makes them more valuable is how long you’ve had it + How many defenses you have.
Much like I did for tournaments, this will go in descending order IMO from the most valuable at top to the least valuable at the bottom. (Though I put the Tag/Trios titles at the bottom, they could be considered more important atm than some of the newly crowned champions)
NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship
Volador Jr.(2nd)
Cagematch.net page for Volador Jr.’s reign
At the top of the champion pile is Volador Jr. Having most defenses and most time with any of the singles World Titles promoted by CMLL. He just like the next guy, won his title off of La Sombra(known as Cien Almas in WWE). La Sombra famously unmasking Volador Jr at CMLL Anniversary 80, then about a year later Volador Jr won this belt off him.
They feuded for this belt in much the same way Dragon Lee and Kamaitachi/Hiromu Takahashi feuded over the CMLL World Lightweight Championship more recently.
Volador Jr won this belt on August 1st, 2014 or 1,056 days almost 3 years ago as of this writing. He has 13 defenses not including his win over La Sombra. Including a very good match vs the current IWGP Jr Champion Kushida few months ago.
NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship
Ultimo Guerrero(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Ultimo’s reign
Ultimo is so high up both because his long time with the belt and many defenses, but also because who he beat. La Sombra held the belt for 953 days a little more 2 1/2 years(Though he didn’t defend as much as one would hope).
The La Sombra match I cataloged in gifs which can be found here, or the video here, I did a write up prior to this blog about it on Reddit.
Ultimo won the belt on August 31, 2015 or 661 days ago as of this writing. He has defended it 11 times since winning it off La Sombra and likely will continue to hold it since he is seen as one of the top talents in the company.
CMLL World Lightweight Championship
Dragon Lee(2nd)
Cagematch.net page for Dragon Lee’s 2nd reign
Dragon Lee has really made this belt his over the last 2 years. Thanks in no small part to his long time rival Kamaitachi(who has gone back to NJPW using the name Hiromu Takahashi). In fact most of Dragon Lee’s first reign defenses were fending off Kamaitachi, who eventually won the belt off Dragon Lee, who won it back from him.
Dragon Lee won the belt March 4, 2016 or 476 days as of this writing. He has since defended it 4 times most recently at the 2017 Fantasticamania shows that CMLL does with NJPW in Japan vs Cavernario who seems to be becoming Dragon Lee’s new main rival.
CMLL World Welterweight Championship
Mephisto(2nd)
Cagematch.net page for Mephisto’s 2nd reign
Mephisto is the leader of a group called Los Hijos del Infierno ("The Sons of the Inferno"). They are a trio of devil themed luchadores who wreck havoc in CMLL trios competition, often ruthless in their destruction of the competition.
Mephisto has taken that trios havoc into singles competition laying waste to the last 7 people who have challenged for the belt he won from Mascara Dorada(who is currently working in WWE as Gran Metalik).
Mephisto has held this title since May 4, 2016 or 415 days as of this writing. He has defended it vs the likes of Mistico/Caristico/Titan and even fellow stablemate Ephesto.
His most recent defense was vs Nego Casas on May 15th 2017
NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship
Hechicero(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Hechicaro’s reign
Despite having a 200+ day reign because reigns in CMLL are so much longer Hechicero is a fairly new champion. Including the match he won the belt in, Hechicero has had 4 matches in this reign. His most recent defense was versus Atlantis from just earlier this week.
He won the belt on November 2, 2016 and has held it for 232 days. He also holds the distinction of defending this belt outside of CMLL. Having defended it vs Caifan in Lucha Memes an independent Lucha Libre promotion in Mexico.
CMLL World Middleweight Champion Angel de Oro(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Angel de Oro’s reign
Despite only having 1 match with the belt on the line(The one where he won it), he is weighted more valuable imo than the next belt. The reason being : he ended the last reign of Dragon Rojo Jr. who had held the title for 1954 days and defended it 19 times. That’s a big rub and with Rojo defending about once every 100 days, Angel de Oro may have a defense coming in the next few weeks.
He has had the title since March 25th 2017 or 90 days. I sadly couldn’t find video of the title change between Dragon Rojo Jr and Angel de Oro. If I find it or if Angel does a defense here in a few weeks I will provide links.
CMLL World Heavyweight Champion
Marco Corleone(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Marco’s reign
This is one of two belts that has controversy, sadly Corleone didn’t get the rub of beating the former champion. This is because this former Champion(Maximo Sexy) and the former CMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion(La Mascara) were both fired for vandalising other talents car.
Marco won the belt June 6th 2017 in a Torneo Cibernetico that wasn’t aired on television.
His first and only successful defense is available on CMLL’s youtube vs. El Terrible
He is so low on this list not because he has been a bad champion, but instead a new champion. With 1 defense and 17 days since he won it(as of this writing), it’s too early to rate him higher.
CMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion Niebla Roja(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Niebla Roja’s reign
This is the other belt that had to be vacated because since the one holding it was fired. Roja had to be last on this list, despite being in a good storyline right now. That story being him leaving the rudo faction Los Guerreros and becoming a tecnico again. Niebla Roja and Ultimo Guerrero have even talked about doing a mask vs hair match. However, that doesn’t make the belt worth anymore to anyone but that rudo faction.
He won the belt on June 10, 2017 and has only had it for 13 days as of this writing. Hopefully he will make a defense in the coming weeks to help legitimize his reign, since he didn’t have to win it in anyway.
Add to that, the fact that Niebla Roja was awarded the belt and has yet to make a defense and this belt is no doubt the lowest value of current CMLL World titles.
CMLL World Tag Team Champions
Negro Casas & Shocker(1st)
Cagematch.net page for Negro Casas and Shocker’s reign
These are hard to compare to singles reigns, so this shouldn’t be.
You could compare it to the trios champions and if you do they have had it slightly longer with a few more defences. Both Negro and Shocker are old school rudos and with time will likely drop this to a couple of younger tecnicos. Both are still a staple of the weekly CMLL shows and despite being 57 Negro casas can still go with the best of them in Arena Mexico, Pueblo or Guadalajara.
These two have held this belt since June 13, 2014 or 1,105 days as of this writing. This is their first reign and they have defended the belt 12 times. Roughly once every 100 days like most belts.
CMLL World Trios Champions Sky Team(Volador Jr.(1), Valiente(2) & Mistico(2))
Mistico and Valiente have held the title together before with a different 3rd(Mascara Dorada AKA WWE’s Gran Metalik). With these two reigns both Mistico and Valiente have climbed up the trios Champions ladder. Both being tied at 5th for longest collective time with the belt at 1,145 days.
This reign however has only been 860 days which still puts Sky Team at the #6 team for longest reign. So this reign is nothing to scoff having held the belt since February 13, 2015.
Secondary and local titles
While these belts are of value too(obviously), I didn’t include them above for reasons I’ll include.
Mexican National titles
These are not included because CMLL doesn’t book these belts or decide who has them. Instead they are controlled by Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre México D.F. ("the Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission"), which use to control belts in AAA as well before AAA abandoned all the belts they had that the Commission controlled. They are still won at CMLL events, but less frequently and not as highlighted as the ‘world’ titles
CMLL Guadalajara championships
These aren’t covered because they are local championships for that region of mexico and are more ‘rookie’ belts than ‘world’ titles.
Championships recognized by CMLL
CMLL sponsors belts that are used elsewhere, but the belts aren’t defended at CMLL events, but rather the sponsored promotion. Lucha Libre Elite and the the Joshi(Female Japanese wrestling) promotion Reina who have 2 belts branded as CMLL-Reina ; World and Jr, but neither are defended at CMLL events instead they are defended at Reina events.