Lucha Dragons

The Lucha Dragons were a Mexican American professional wrestling tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) consisting of Kalisto & 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 Team Championship after defeating former champions The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) on September 11, 2014 at NXT Takeover:Fatal 4-Way.
The team announced on July 18, 2016 that they were 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 NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way, Kalisto and Sin Cara, now billed together as "The Lucha Dragons", defeated The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. 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 & Simon Gotch) which culminated in a title match at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution in which the Lucha Dragons retained.
The Lucha Dragons lost the titles to Buddy Murphy & Wesley Blake on the January 15, 2015 episode of NXT. They then lost a rematch to Blake and Murphy at NXT TakeOver: Rival The duo then began to appear less frequently on NXT, losing a number one contenders tag-team match to Enzo Amore & 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 & 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 TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, 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 lost 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 WWE 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.
== In wrestling ==
* Double-team finishing moves
**Salida del Sol by Kalisto followed by a Falling Star by Sin Cara
* Entrance themes
**"Lucha Lucha" by CFO$ (September 11, 2014–July 18, 2016)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*WWE NXT
**NXT Tag Team Championship (1 time)
**NXT Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Tournament (2014)
==See also==
*Sin Cara
*Kalisto
==External links==
* Profile
Category:2014 debuts
Category:2016 disbandments
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables
Category:NXT Tag Team Champions
Category:Teams and stables