Lucha Dragons The Lucha Dragons were a Mexican American professional wrestling tag team in WWE , consisting of Kalisto and Sin Cara . They previously wrestled in WWE ' s developmental territory NXT , where they were one - time NXT Tag Team Champions . Their name is a reference to their lucha libre style of wrestling . They won the NXT tag titles after defeating former champions The Ascension on September 11 , 2014 at NXT Takeover : Fatal 4 - Way . The team announced on July 18 , 2016 that they dissolving as tag team after entering the 2016 WWE Draft Lottery as solo competitors . The following day during the draft , Sin Cara was drafted to " Raw " and Kalisto was drafted to " SmackDown " . History . NXT Tag Team Champions ( 2014 – 2015 ) . After WWE ' s release of Luis Urive on March 26 , 2014 , Jorge Arias ( formerly known as " Hunico " and previously portrayed Sin Cara ) reprised the Sin Cara character towards the end of 2013 . After a brief winning streak , as 2014 progressed , Sin Cara was unsuccessful in winning four battles royal : the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX , a battle royal for the WWE United States Championship in May , a Money in the Bank qualifying battle royal in June , and a battle royal for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Battleground . On the July 24 episode of " NXT " , after failing to win the NXT Tag Team Championship from The Ascension with his former partner El Local at NXT Takeover on May 29 , Kalisto announced he and El Local had parted ways and revealed Sin Cara as his new partner . Over the next weeks , Kalisto and Sin Cara won a tournament to become the number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship . On September 11 at , Kalisto and Sin Cara , now billed together as " The Lucha Dragons " , defeated The Ascension to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions , their first WWE titles . They successfully defended their titles in a rematch against The Ascension two weeks later on the September 25th episode of " NXT " , winning the match after Hideo Itami distracted The Ascension . They then began a rivalry with The Vaudevillains ( Aiden English and Simon Gotch ) , which culminated in a title match at in which the Lucha Dragons retained . The Lucha Dragons lost the titles to Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake on the January 15 , 2015 episode of " NXT " . They then lost a rematch to Blake and Murphy at The duo then began to appear less frequently on " NXT " , losing a number one contenders tag - team match to Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady on the March 11 episode . During this period they also began to appear infrequently on WWE ' s main roster show " Main Event " , winning matches against the likes of The Ascension . Main roster ( 2015 – 2016 ) . The Lucha Dragons made their official main roster debut on the March 30 , 2015 episode of " Raw " , the night after WrestleMania 31 , in which they teamed with The New Day to defeat the team of The Ascension , Cesaro and Tyson Kidd in an eight - man tag team match , with Kalisto scoring the pinfall . On May 31 , at Elimination Chamber , The Lucha Dragons competed in the first - ever tag team Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Tag Team Championship , but failed to win . The Lucha Dragons received another title shot on August 23 at SummerSlam in a fatal four - way tag team match , but were once again unsuccessful . In November , after Seth Rollins vacated the WWE World Heavyweight Championship due to a legitimate injury , WWE held a tournament to determine a new champion and Kalisto started to wrestle in the singles competition as well . After defeating Ryback in his first round match on the November 12 episode of " SmackDown " , Kalisto was eliminated in the quarterfinals on the November 16 episode of " Raw " by Alberto Del Rio . At Survivor Series on November 22 , The Lucha Dragons teamed up with The Usos ( Jimmy and Jey Uso ) and Ryback in a five - on - five elimination tag team match against The New Day ( Big E , Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods ) and Sheamus and King Barrett in a winning effort . On December 13 , at , The Lucha Dragons received another shot at the WWE Tag Team Championship , but were defeated by The New Day in a triple threat ladder match , which also included The Usos . The Lucha Dragons once again failed to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on the December 22 episode of " Super SmackDown Live ! " , where they were defeated by The New Day . After Sin Cara had been sidelined with a shoulder injury in late December 2015 , Kalisto defeated United States Champion Alberto Del Rio in a non - title match with John Cena in his corner on the January 7 , 2016 episode of " SmackDown " . On the January 11 episode of " Raw " , Kalisto defeated Del Rio to win the United States Championship , his first championship on the main roster and his first singles title in WWE . He dropped the title back to Del Rio on the January 14 episode of " SmackDown " , but won it back at Royal Rumble . On the Fastlane pre - show , Kalisto defeated Del Rio in a two - out - of - three falls match to retain the title . Kalisto defeated Ryback to defend his United States Championship at the WrestleMania 32 pre - show , whereas Sin Cara competed in a seven - man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at the time held by Kevin Owens . On the April 11 episode of " Raw " , The Lucha Dragons entered a tournament to determine the # 1 contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship , but were eliminated in the first round by The Dudley Boyz . Kalisto then rekindled his rivalry with Ryback , and eventually defeated him once again on May 1 at the Payback pre - show to retain the title . On May 22 at Extreme Rules , Kalisto lost the title to Rusev and failed to regain the title in a rematch against Rusev on the May 26 episode of " SmackDown " . On the Money in the Bank pre - show , The Lucha Dargons defeated The Dudley Boyz . On July 18 , Kalisto and Sin Cara announced that they mutually disbanded as a tag team and would enter the 2016 WWE Draft as singles competitors . The following day during the draft , Sin Cara was drafted to " Raw " and Kalisto was drafted to " SmackDown " .