page_title: CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: CMLL World Heavyweight Championship / History
caption_attribution_description: Val Venis
context_page_description: The CMLL World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship established in 1991 and promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. CMLL introduced the championship to signal their independence from the National Wrestling Alliance, whose titles they had continued to promote after leaving the alliance in the late 1980s. As part of the move away from the NWA, CMLL established championships designated as "CMLL World Championships" for several weight divisions. The Heavyweight Championship was the first CMLL title to be created, and the inaugural champion was Konnan el Bárbaro, who won the title on June 9, 1991. The current champion is Último Guerrero, who is in his second reign. He defeated Diamante Azul in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant title on October 16, 2018. Sixteen different wrestlers have held the championship, split over twenty separate championship reigns.
  In most professional wrestling promotions around the world, the "world heavyweight" designation is used to indicate the highest-ranking championship instead of an actual weight division.
context_section_description: The Mexican professional wrestling promotion Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) was founded in 1933 and initially recognized a series of "Mexican National" wrestling championships, endorsed by the Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F. (Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission). The Mexican National Heavyweight Championship was created in 1926, and over time, EMLL began promoting matches for that championship with the approval and oversight of the wrestling commission. In the 1950s, EMLL became a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), recognized the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as the highest ranking championship, and began promoting title matches for the NWA in Mexico on occasion.
  In the late 1980s, EMLL left the NWA to avoid their politics and would later rebrand themselves as "Consejo Mundal de Lucha Libre" (CMLL). Although they had left the NWA, they were still promoting the NWA's titles. By the start of the 1990s, CMLL began to downplay the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship bouts, featuring them less frequently on CMLL shows, and eventually stopped promoting them altogether. In 1991, CMLL began creating a series of CMLL-branded world championships, the first of which was for the heavyweight division. The first champion was crowned in the finals of a 16-man tournament that saw Konnan el Bárbaro defeat Cien Caras. Konnan lost the title to Cien Caras in his first title defense on August 18, 1991, making him one of three champions without a single successful title defense. 
  Cien Caras left CMLL in the summer of 1992 to join former CMLL promoter Antonio Peña in Peña's newly formed Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) wrestling promotion, leaving CMLL without a heavyweight champion. CMLL held a 16-man single-elimination tournament from October 30, 1992, to November 20, 1992, which ended with Black Magic defeating Rayo de Jalisco Jr. to win the championship. With that victory, he became the first non-Hispanic, and so far the only British wrestler, to win the championship. On June 27, 1993, Mexican native Brazo de Plata defeated Black Magic for the title at Arena México, CMLL's main venue.
  On April 18, 1997, Steel became the first Canadian to win the championship by defeating then-champion Rayo de Jalisco Jr. to become the eighth overall champion. In September 1997, Steel signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) forcing CMLL to vacate the championship for the second time. Instead of holding a traditional tournament to crown another champion, CMLL had the new champion decided in a triple threat match between the top three heavyweight contenders, Universo 2000, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., and Cien Caras. On October 19, 1997, Universo 2000 won the title, starting the first of his three reigns, more than any other wrestler. Universo 2000 lost the title to and regained the title from Rayo de Jalisco Jr. Universo 2000's second reign as champion lasted 1,225 days, the championship's longest reign. This record-breaking run ended on April 18, 2003, when Mr. Niebla won the title. Mr. Niebla was champion for 543 days before Universo 2000 regained the championship for his record-setting third reign.
  On July 8, 2007, Dos Caras Jr. became the fourteenth overall champion. His reign lasted 533 days, but only saw him defend the title a few times, defeating Lizmark Jr. and Último Guerrero. On December 22, 2008, Último Guerrero won the championship from Dos Caras Jr., who shortly afterwards left CMLL to work for WWE. On April 2, 2009, Último Guerrero successfully defended the title against Rey Mendoza Jr. on an independent wrestling promotion show in Gomez Palacio, marking the first time the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship was defended on a non-CMLL promoted show. After a 963-day reign and 17 successful defenses, Guerrero lost the title to Héctor Garza on August 12, 2011. The championship was vacated on November 11, 2011, after Garza left CMLL for Perros del Mal Producciones, a group of former CMLL wrestlers who broke away from the promotion in late 2011. On January 1, 2012, El 
caption: Steel, the 8th CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.
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