The WWC Junior Heavyweight Championship is a
championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
contested for in the
Puerto Rican professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
promotion
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
, the
World Wrestling Council
The World Wrestling Council (WWC) (Spanish: "Consejo Mundial de Lucha"), is a Puerto-Rican professional wrestling promotion based in Puerto Rico. It was originally established as Capitol Sports Promotions in 1973 by Carlos Colón Sr., Victor J ...
. While
weight classes
Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...
are generally not strictly adhered to in professional wrestling today, this particular championship is usually competed for by wrestlers weighing less than 230 lbs.
History
For a time, the title was defended in the
W*ING
Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion specialized in deathmatches.
History
After leaving Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in the summer of 1991, Kazuyoshi Osako and Kiyoshi "Mickey" Ibarag ...
promotion in
Japan as the W*ING World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Originally, the title was used to push a wrestler that the promotion was interested in, becoming a stepping stone on the route to the
WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship
The WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship and the top title contested for in the Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion, the World Wrestling Council. The championship was establ ...
.
A pattern was followed where these talents would win the Junior Heavyweight Championship first, followed by tertiary and secondary titles, before progressing to the main event.
By the 2010s, promoting up-and-comers became a secondary function, with the title now being used to appease journeymen and occasionally punish wrestlers that failed to draw.
Independent wrestlers and veterans such as
Tommy Diablo
Armando Gorbea, better known as Tommy Diablo, is a professional wrestler (currently inactive) better known for wrestling in both the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico and the World Wrestling Council, where he is a fifteen-time ...
(Armando Gorbea) would exchange the title, which served as a perpetual card opener.
2017 international tours
After defeating Ángel Pérez to win the title for the first time and aware that it was no longer being used to push new or young talents, O.T. Fernández requested permission to take it abroad, citing interest in returning it to its original format and reputation by stating that he was "going to keep representing and showcasing the title with the best of
isabilities
nd that he wantedto keep elevating this championship back to its old roots."
In May 2017, he took the title on the Dragonmanía XII tour held at the
Arena México
Arena México is an indoor arena in Mexico City, Mexico, located in the Colonia Doctores neighborhood in the Cuauhtémoc borough. The arena is primarily used for professional wrestling, or ''lucha libre'', shows promoted by Consejo Mundial de Luc ...
, marking the first time in years that the title was exposed internationally, though it was not officially defended. On July 8, 2017, Fernández successfully retained the title over Aero Boy in a Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling (CKCW) card held at Ohio.
His reign continued gathering outside exposition by making an appearance in a
WAPA-TV
WAPA-TV (channel 4) is a Spanish-language independent television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is owned by Hemisphere Media Group, which is 84% owned by InterMedia Partners. WAPA-TV's studios are located on Avenida Luis Vigoreaux in G ...
comedy named "Such is Life". Fernández's successor, Ángel Cotto, continued the trend by defending the title at Chicago as part of IWC's Halloween In Your Face event, retaining against Julio "Vértigo" Rivera by getting himself disqualified.
Inactivity, IWA Florida (2018–2020)
After the title was quietly retired, the incumbent left WWC with the belt in his possession. On October 17, 2018, Cotto debuted in the rival
World Wrestling League
La Liga Wrestling (formerly World Wrestling League or Liga Mundial de Lucha), was a wrestling promotion company based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2012 by businessman Richard Negrín with the cooperation of established wrestling figur ...
, where the fact that he never lost the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship was worked into a storyline that saw him challenge
WWL Super Cruiserweight Champion Mark Davidson. On November 12, 2018, the actual belt made an appearance (as the "Puerto Rico Middleweight Championship") in a video announcing his arrival to IWA Florida, itself a spinoff of WWC's longstanding competition, the
International Wrestling Association (IWA-PR). On December 7, 2018, the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship made its first physical appearance (though it was partially obscured) in WWL as part of Cotto's promotional skit for Black Xmas, where he felt short in his attempt to accomplish an extra-official unification.
On December 17, 2018, IWA Florida announced that he would be exposing the title in an open challenge at
Histeria Boricua 2019. As part of that event, Papi Nieves won the belt and was attacked backstage. This led to a formal feud against Cotto. Nieves’ reign ended on March 16, 2019, when he dropped the belt back to its former owner at the IWA Arena. Cotto would then take it to Chicago, appearing in Global Wrestling Stars’ Noche Xtrema event. Even when entering a tournament for the IWA Florida Tag Team Championship, his incumbency as champion was emphasized.
When queried about carrying and defending the belt, Cotto said that he would return it to WWC if an “economic agreement is reached with Carlos Colón”.
He continued being billed as the “incumbent champion” afterwards, making appearances in this role in August 2019.
Reintroduction (2021–present)
Following a nine-month hiatus caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, WWC announced that among the changes that would take place when cards resumed was a tournament for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. This included the introduction of a new belt, to be awarded to the winner on January 31, 2021.
Title history
References
External links
Wrestling Information ArchiveWrestlingdata.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wwc Junior Heavyweight Championship
Junior heavyweight wrestling championships
World Wrestling Council championships
World professional wrestling championships