The NWA World Welterweight Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Mundial Welter de NWA) is an inactive professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and most recently promoted by NWA Mexico. The championship was originally created in 1946 by the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). As with all professional wrestling championships, matches for the NWA World Welterweight Championship were not won or lost competitively but by a pre-planned ending to a match, with the outcome determined by the CMLL bookers and match makers. CMLL controlled the championship from 1946 until 1996 and again from 2007 until 2010. From 1996 until 2007 the championship was promoted mainly in Japan, initially 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 promoted by the Toryumon federation until 2007 when it returned to Mexico and CMLL. CMLL was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) until the late 1980s but chose to keep the championship and the NWA prefix after leaving the NWA.

The championship predates the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948 and was initially called the World Welterweight Championship, promoted by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). When EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1952, the NWA prefix was added. 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 being the NWA World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. All continued to be billed as "Campeonatos de NWA" (NWA Championships). On occasion, a promotion declared the championship vacant, which meant there was no champion at that point in time. This was either due to a storyline or real-life issues such as a champion suffering an injury and being unable to defend the championship, or leaving the company. All title matches held in Mexico took place under two out of three falls rules. 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.

El Santo became the first NWA World Welterweight Champion by winning an eight-man tournament when he defeated Pete Pancoff in the finals. 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 created the CMLL World Welterweight Championship in February 1992 as their top welterweight championship, and thus did not crown a new NWA 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 an 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 had changed hands outside Mexico. The championship would switch hands in each round of the tournament as Último Dragón won it the next night and then Great Sasuke won it as he won the tournament. In 1996 and 1997 the championship was defended as part of the J-Crown until it was broken up into the original individual championships. After this 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 by 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 the NWA) 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 completely, with Mephisto, the NWA Welterweight Champion, responding 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. The 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 when he defeated Dr. Cerebro on a show in London, England.

Akantus was the most recent NWA World Welterweight champion, having defeated Impostor Jr. to win the title on April 24, 2016, marking the only known championship match in his reign. Akantus was 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.

Title history

Key

No.	Overall reign number
Reign	Reign number for the specific champion
Days	Number of days held
N/A	Unknown information
(NLT)	Championship change took place "no later than" the date listed
†	Championship change is unrecognized by the promotion

No.	Champion	Championship change			Reign statistics		Notes	Ref.
		Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days
	Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL)
1	El Santo	March 15, 1946	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	337	Defeated Pete Pancoff to become the first champion.
2	Jack O'Brien	February 15, 1947	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	804
3	Gory Guerrero	April 29, 1949	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	805
4	Bobby Bonales	July 13, 1951	Super Viernes	N/A	1	441
	National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) / Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL)
5	El Santo	September 26, 1952	EMLL 19th Anniversary Show	Mexico City	2	302
6	Blue Demon	July 25, 1953	EMLL 20th Anniversary Show	Mexico City	1	1,912
7	Karloff Lagarde	January 31, 1958	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	2,743
8	Huracán Ramírez	August 5, 1965	12. Aniversario de la Arena Isabel	Cuernavaca, Morelos	1	50
9	Karloff Lagarde	September 24, 1965	EMLL 32nd Anniversary Show	Mexico City	2	590
10	Vento Castella	May 7, 1967	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	57
11	Karloff Lagarde	July 3, 1967	EMLL show	Mexico City	3	1,469
12	Alberto Muñoz	July 11, 1971	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	715
—	Vacated	June 25, 1973	—	—	—	—	EMLL vacated the championship after Muñoz suffered a near-fatal injury.
13	Mano Negra	December 14, 1973	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	562	Mano Negra defeated Karloff Lagarde to win the vacant title.
14	Blue Demon	June 29, 1975	EMLL show	Mexico City	2	285
15	Mano Negra	January 19, 1976	EMLL show	Mexico City	2	1,197
16	Fishman	April 9, 1976	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	224
17	Américo Rocca	April 30, 1979	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	264
18	Kato Kung Lee	January 19, 1980	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	106
19	El Supremo	May 4, 1980	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	31
20	Lizmark	June 4, 1980	EMLL show	Acapulco, Guerrero	1	506
21	La Fiera	October 23, 1981	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	268
22	Américo Rocca	July 18, 1982	EMLL show	Guadalajara, Jalisco	2	558
23	Mocho Cota	January 27, 1984	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	181
24	Chamaco Valaguez	July 26, 1984	EMLL show	Cuernavaca, Morelos	1	359
—	Vacated	July 20, 1985	—	—	—	—	EMLL vacated the championship after Valaguez won the NWA World Middleweight Championship.
25	El Dandy	November 17, 1985	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	141
26	Monarca Cruz	April 7, 1986	EMLL show	Monterrey, Nuevo León	1	78
	Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL)
27	El Dandy	August 24, 1986	EMLL show	N/A	2	70
28	Américo Rocca	November 2, 1986	EMLL show	Mexico City	3	636
29	Solar II	July 30, 1988	EMLL show	Cuernavaca, Morelos	1	66
30	Fuerza Guerrera	October 4, 1988	EMLL show	Mexico City	1	241
31	Águila Solitaria	June 2, 1989	Super Viernes	Mexico City	1	111
32	Fuerza Guerrera	September 21, 1989	Jueves Arena Puebla	Puebla, Puebla	2	806
33	Misterioso	December 6, 1991	Domingos Arena Mexico	Mexico City	1	196
	Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL)
—	Vacated	June 19, 1992	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated when Misterioso left CMLL.
34	Negro Casas	December 1, 1995	Juicio Final	Mexico City	1	246	Negro Casas defeated El Hijo del Santo in a tournament final to win the vacant title.
35	Shinjiro Otani	August 3, 1996	NJPW G1 Climax 1996 day 2	Tokyo, Japan	1	1
36	Último Dragón	August 4, 1996	NJPW G1 Climax 1996 day 3	Tokyo, Japan	1	1
	Part of the J-Crown Championship
37	The Great Sasuke	August 5, 1996	NJPW G1 Climax 1996 day 4	Tokyo, Japan	1	67	The championship became one of eight championships comprising New Japan Pro-Wrestling's J-Crown Championship.
38	Último Dragón	October 11, 1996	Osaka Crush Night	Osaka, Japan	2	85
39	Jushin Thunder Liger	January 4, 1997	Wrestling World 1997	Tokyo, Japan	1	183
40	El Samurai	July 6, 1997	Summer Struggle 1997	Sapporo, Japan	1	35
41	Shinjiro Otani	August 10, 1997	The Four Heaven In Nagoya Dome	Nagoya, Japan	2	87
—	Vacated	November 5, 1997	—	—	—	—	Otani vacated six of the seven remaining J-Crown titles after being forced by the World Wrestling Federation to return their Light Heavyweight Championship belt, ending the J-Crown Championship.
	Toryumon
42	Dragon Kid	February 6, 1999	King Of Dragon 1999	Nagoya, Japan	1	78	Dragon Kid defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the vacant title.
43	Judo Suwa	April 25, 1999	Dragon Fever ~ Shun No Arashi	Kawasaki, Japan	1	454
44	Kenichiro Arai	July 22, 2000	Dragon's Crash 2000	Tokyo, Japan	1	152
—	Vacated	December 21, 2000	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated after outside interference during a match on December 15 in Kawasaki, Japan, in which Susumu Mochizuki defeated Arai.
45	Kenichiro Arai	January 29, 2001	Muy Bien 2001	Tokyo, Japan	2	118	Arai defeated Yasushi Kanda in a tournament final to win the vacant title.
46	Susumu Mochizuki	May 27, 2001	Premium Live Match Vol. 20	Kobe, Japan	1	126
47	Ryo Saito	September 30, 2001	Absolutamente	Tokyo, Japan	1	210
48	Genki Horiguchi	April 28, 2002	Premium Live Match Vol. 29	Kobe, Japan	1	56
—	Vacated	June 23, 2002	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated following a no contest between Horiguchi and Dragon Kid.
49	Ricky Marvin	July 7, 2002	IIIer Aniversario	Kobe, Japan	1	17	Ricky Marvin defeated Super Nova to win the vacant championship.
50	Genki Horiguchi	July 24, 2002	Verano Peligroso 2002 - Day 5	Kumamoto, Japan	2	4
51	Darkness Dragon	July 28, 2002	Verano Peligroso 2002 - Day 8	Shimonoseki, Japan	1	236
—	Vacated	March 21, 2003	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated due to an injury to Darkness Dragon.
52	YOSSINO	March 22, 2003	El Numero Uno 2003	Sapporo, Japan	1	456	YOSSINO defeated Genki Horiguchi to win the vacant title.
—	Vacated	June 20, 2004	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated by YOSSINO in order to focus on winning the Toryumon Último Dragón Gym Championship.
53	Hajime Ohara	May 13, 2006	UD:06	Mexico City	1	252	Ohara defeated La Máscara to win the vacant title.
54	Super Delfin	January 20, 2007	OPW show	Osaka, Japan	1	21
55	Hajime Ohara	February 10, 2007	OPW show	Osaka, Japan	2	290
	Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL)
56	La Sombra	November 27, 2007	Martes Arena Mexico	Mexico City	1	547	This victory brought the championship back under CMLL's control.
57	Mephisto	May 27, 2009	CMLL show	Acapulco, Guerrero	1	442	CMLL replaced the championship with the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship on August 12, 2010.
—	Vacated	August 12, 2010	—	—	—	—	The championship was vacated when CMLL returned it to NWA.
	National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) / NWA Mexico
58	Cassandro	June 25, 2011	NWA Mexico UK Tour	London, United Kingdom	1	1,331	Defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the vacant Championship.
59	Magno	February 15, 2015	Independent show	El Paso, Texas	1	70	This was a three-way match that also included Boby Zavala.
—	Vacated	April 26, 2015	—	—	—	—	Magno was stripped of the championship after signing a full time contract with WWE.
60	Impostor Jr.	May 31, 2015	Independent show	El Paso, Texas	1	189	Defeated Boby Zavala to win the vacant championship.
61	Ultimo Samuray	December 6, 2015	Independent show	El Paso, Texas	1	19
62	Impostor Jr.	December 25, 2015	Independent show	El Paso, Texas	2	121
63	Akantus	April 24, 2016	Independent show	El Paso, Texas	1	524	Records of title matches/defenses are not presently available beyond August 2016. The title reign is considered to have ended on September 30, 2017, when Lightning One's ownership of the NWA went into effect and the NWA terminated its contracts with its licensees. Lightning One vacated or retired all of the NWA's titles except the World Heavyweight, Women's, and World Tag Team championships.
—	Deactivated	September 30, 2017	—	—	—	—	The championship was retired after the NWA was purchased by Lightning One, Inc.

Reigns by combined length

Rank	Wrestler	No. of Reigns	Combined days	Ref(s).
1	Karloff Lagarde	3	4,802
2	Blue Demon	2	2,197
3	Mano Negra	2	1,759
4	Américo Rocca	3	1,458
5	Cassandro	1	1,331
6	Fuerza Guerrera	2	1,047
7	Jack O'Brien	1	804
8	Gory Guerrero	1	805
9	Alberto Muñoz	1	715
10	El Santo	2	639
11	La Sombra	2	547
12	Hajime Ohara	2	542
13	Lizmark	1	506
14	YOSSINO	1	456
15	Judo Suwa	1	454
16	Bobby Bonales	1	441
17	Mephisto	1	442
18	Chamaco Valaguez	1	359
19	Impostor Jr.	1	310
20	Kenichiro Arai	2	270
21	La Fiera	1	268
22	Negro Casas	1	246
23	Darkness Dragon	1	236
24	Fishman	1	224
25	El Dandy	2	211
26	Ryo Saito	1	210
27	Jushin Thunder Liger	1	183
28	Mocho Cota	1	181
29	Misterioso	1	196
30	Susumu Mochizuki	1	126
31	Akantus	1	524
32	Águila Solitaria	1	111
33	Kato Kung Lee	1	106
34	Shinjiro Otani	2	88
35	Último Dragón	2	86
36	Dragon Kid	1	78
	Monarca Cruz	1	78
38	Magno	1	70
39	The Great Sasuke	1	67
40	Solar II	1	66
41	Genki Horiguchi	2	60
42	Vento Castella	1	57
43	Huracán Ramírez	1	50
44	El Samurai	1	35
45	El Supremo	1	31
46	Super Delfin	1	21
47	Ultimo Samuray	1	19
48	Ricky Marvin	1	17

See also

• List of National Wrestling Alliance championships

Footnotes