WWL World Heavyweight Championship

The WWL World Heavyweight Championship (Campeonato Mundial Peso Completo de la WWL in Spanish) is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship promoted by the World Wrestling League (WWL) promotion in Puerto Rico. The first champion was crowned on April 21, 2013, when Monster Pain won a battle royal for the title.

WWL World Heavyweight Championship
One-time champion, Mr. Big.
Details
PromotionWorld Wrestling League
Date establishedApril 21, 2013
Current champion(s)Star Roger
Date wonFebruary 9, 2020

The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition.

History

Inaugural champion; international defenses

The original title belt was a variant of the Big Gold Belt, since then-president Richard Negrín was a fan of the design. On April 21, 2013, at the inaugural event of the WWL, José Torres, working as Monster Pain, defeated Bobby Lashley to win a battle royal and become the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion.[1][2] The title soon received its first international exposition by being featured, but not defended, in a match where he teamed with Matt Morgan and Jeff Jarrett in a win over the Trios Champions Los Psycho Circus as part of Asistencia Asesoría y Administración's (AAA) Triplemanía XXI event.

Shane Sewell with the original belt.

On September 6, 2013, Torres defended the WWL World Heavyweight Championship, retaining after losing a countout to John Morrison in Saltillo. Two days later at Monterrey, he retained by disqualification in a rematch, winning when Morrison removed his mask. On March 7, 2014, he retained the title by wrestling Mil Máscaras to a no contest at Veracruz.[3] Two days later, Torres defeated Carly Colón and Chavo Guerrero in Mexico City to remain champion. On October 18, 2014, at the show that marked the return to the Puerto Rican home base known as Insurrection, Pain lost the title against Shane Sewell.[4] The Canadian served as transitional champion, eventually losing to Alberto El Patrón (José Alberto Rodríguez). A controversial finish was used to justify stripping him of the title. Negrín later revealed that Rodríguez had created a creative hindrance by refusing to lose or film promos throughout his run.[5]

Reintroduction

On March 23, 2015, the promotion entered a hiatus without crowning a champion, and when it returned the original belt was replaced with a new diamond-shaped design, also marking a new approach that focuses on hosting cards at Puerto Rico instead of touring. Hiram Tua (Hiram Mulero) won the vacant title and defended it throughout a change in administration that saw Savio Vega (Juan Rivera) purchase the promotion from Negrín. Tua dropped the title to Superstar Ash (Peter Concepción) at Christmas in PR, the promotion's 2016 season closer. However, the relationship between Rivera and Negrín deteriorated and the latter began sponsoring a small independent named Caribbean Wrestling School (CWS). At Evolución, Superstar Ash stated during a promo that he was retiring and vacating the title due to nagging leg injuries, but appeared in the former president's promotion that same night.[6]

The promotion responded by giving the title to Mr. Big (Miguel Maldonado), a then midcard veteran who was amidst a major angle where he was forced to become disciplined in order to return to the mainevent after almost a decade. He was booked as a rebellious and dominant champion for the following months, retaining the title with relative ease and only responding to Vega. Parallel to his feuds was an angle where his former tag team partner Blitz (Freddy Lozada) tried to convince Big that he was on the wrong side, only to be attacked. After La Junta de Control a stable lead by Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) was introduced as the new power and storyline owner of WWL, firing Vega in the process, the group actively pursued replacing him with a corporative champion, bringing talent from abroad (mostly from Konnan's The CRASH).

Blitz managed to be named the special referee of Big's first defense under the new regime and aided him retain over Mr. 450 (John Jesús Yurnet) and Willie Mack. After the tag team reformed as Los Rabiosos, general manager Miguel Pérez Jr. was tasked with dethroning him by any means necessary. Mr. 450 was the first to get a titular rematch, but the contest ended in a double disqualification due to outside interference. A returning Concepción, now known as El Nazareno, also failed to win the title after refusing to cheat despite Pérez giving him carte blanche to do so.

Mr. 450's international tour

On July 15, 2017, Mr. 450 defeated Joseph Cruz "J.C." Navarro in a first contenders match and stole the WWL World Heavyweight Championship belt, bringing it on board an airplane.[7] Afterwards, the self-proclaimed champion would carry the title in his foreign presentations, beginning the following day when he headlined in a trios match at the Arena Nacionalista in Mexicali. This was followed by an appearance in Wrestling Superstar's (WS) Lucha Conquest event, held at Orlando, Florida. On August 5, 2017, Big was given the original belt to replace the stolen one and defended it in a three-way against the latest contenders that ended without a winner, after which Mr. 450 (now known as The Mecha Wolf 450) took that one as well and self-proclaimed himself the "Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion".

Although the promotion entered a forced hiatus after hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico in September 2017, 450 retained the unofficial WWL World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Skalibur on October 29, this as part of the 28th Anniversary of the Arena Nacionalista in Mexicali. On March 24, 2018, 450 made an appearance with the second model of the title (WWL was still preparing to inaugurate its 2018 season the following month) while challenging Star Roger for Champion Wrestling Association's (a large independent company, which occupies the third place among Puerto Rican promotions) World Heavyweight Championship.[8] Mr. Big also made an unannounced appearance, attacking both and reclaiming the belt.[8] Despite this, 450 retained control of the original title (which was phased out of the storyline).

After defeating Mr. Big at Juicio Final to formally become champion, more defenses abroad followed. On June 23, 2018, Mecha Wolf retained over Jake St. Patrick in a Coastal Championship Wrestling (CCW) card held at Coral Springs, Florida.

Title history
# Wrestlers Reign Date Days
held		 Location Event Notes Ref
1 Monster Pain 1 April 21, 2013 545 Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico Idols of Wrestling Monster Pain defeated Bobby Lashley in the final of a twenty-five man battle royal to become the inaugural champion. [9]
2 Shane Sewell 1 October 18, 2014 80 Bayamón, Puerto Rico Insurrection [4]
3 Alberto El Patrón 1 January 6, 2015 256 San Juan, Puerto Rico Guerra de Reyes This was a three-way match, also featuring "El Mesias" Ricky Banderas. [10]
– Vacated – September 19, 2015 – Bayamón, Puerto Rico WrestleFest After a controversy during a title match. [11]
4 Hiram Tua 1 July 16, 2016 120 Canovanas, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage #17 – Third Season Defeated Rikochet, David "Big Daddy" Montes & Manny Ferno. This episode aired on tape delay on July 28, 2016. [12]
5 Superstar Ash 1 November 13, 2016 62 Cataño, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage Live! Defeated Hiram Tua, Spectro & Vassago. This episode aired on Youtube on November 18, 2016. [13][14]
– Vacated – January 14, 2017 14 Cataño, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage Live! Evolucion Vacated the title to retire from Lucha Libre but some hours later appeared at CWS a rival promotion. It aired on Youtube on January 26, 2017. [15][16]
6 Mr. Big 1 January 28, 2017 447 Cataño, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage Live! Defeated Manny Ferno, Vassago and Payatronic in a Fatal 4 Way No-DQ Match with Savio Vega as Special Referee. It aired on Youtube on February 25, 2017. [17][18]
7 Mecha Wolf 1 April 20, 2018 190 Dorado, Puerto Rico Juicio Final [19]
– Vacated – October 27, 2018 – Villalba, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage Live! Mecha Wolf was stripped of the title after missing a scheduled flight [20]
8 BJ 1 October 27, 2018 231 Villalba, Puerto Rico WWL High Voltage Live! Defeated Angel Fashion
9 Mike Mendoza 1 June 15, 2019 119 Dorado, Puerto Rico Destino Final [21]
10 Angel Fashion 1 October 12, 2019 120 Caguas, Puerto Rico Insurrection
11 Mike Mendoza 2 February 9, 2020 San Juan, Puerto Rico The End
12 Star Roger 1 February 9, 2020 345+ San Juan, Puerto Rico The End

References
  1. Mexicool, Rey (April 21, 2013). "WWL "Idols of Wrestling": Monster Pain, primer Campeón Mundial Completo de WWL". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved April 22, 2013.
  2. Gee Schoon Tong, Chris (April 22, 2013). "Show results – 4/21 WWL debut in San Juan, P.R.: TNA six-man tag match, Cabana vs. Corino, Ivelisse, many title matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
  3. "Noticias – PRWrestling – Noticias WWE, AEW, Lucha Libre de Puerto Rico y Más!". www.prwrestling.com.
  4. "WWL Mundial". www.facebook.com.
  7. Francisco "McGyver" Gaztambide (2017-07-16). "PR: Cambio de bando en show en Mayagüez" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  8. "CWA: Star Roger Traiciona; Se llevan campeonato WWL – PRWrestling – Noticias WWE, AEW, Lucha Libre de Puerto Rico y Más!". www.prwrestling.com.
  9. Fransico "McGyver" Gatzambide (2013-04-21). "Resultados WWL 'Idols of Wrestling'" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  10. Perez, Jose (January 6, 2015). "More gold for Del Rio". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  11. "RESULTADOS WWL WRESTLEFEST BAYAMON 9/19 – PRWrestling – Noticias WWE, AEW, Lucha Libre de Puerto Rico y Más!". www.prwrestling.com.
  12. WWL Mundial Videos (2016-07-28), WWL High Voltage #17 – Third Season, retrieved 2016-07-29
  13. "WWL Mundial – Felicidades al nuevo representante de la... | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  14. WWL Mundial Videos (2016-11-18), WWL High Voltage #3 – Fourth Season, retrieved 2016-11-21
  15. Anthony Piñeiro (2017-01-15), ¿Superstar Ash se retira de la Lucha Libre?, retrieved 2017-01-16
  16. WWL Mundial Videos (2017-01-26), WWL High Voltage Evolución, retrieved 2017-01-26
  17. "NOTAS DE LA LUCHA LIBRE BORICUA". prwrestling.com (in Spanish). 2017-01-29. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  18. WWL Mundial Videos (2017-02-25), WWL High Voltage #8 Fourth Season, retrieved 2018-04-29
  19. Garcia, Amaury (2018-04-21). "WWL Juicio Final: Regresa Savio Vega; Mecha Wolf gana título mundial; Cambios de títulos, traiciones y más (FOTOS y VIDEOS)". Contralona.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  20. "WWL Mundial". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  21. "🚨⚠️🔥 ¡ÚLTIMA HORA! 🔥⚠️🚨 "Yo gané como tiene que ganar un CAMPEÓN" -Mike Mendoza. Chequea las PRIMERAS DECLARACIONES del NUEVO Campeón Mundial de #WWL tras destronar a El Fenómeno BJ en el evento #WWLDestinoFinal. Pendientes para más en Contralona y el programa WWL Mundial High Voltage a través de Punto 2 y ahora por FITE.TV". www.facebook.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-06-16.
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