CMLL Reyes del Aire

The Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) has traditionally held an annual Reyes del Aire (Spanish for "Kings of the Air") tournament since 2005. There was no tournament in 2010 and both 2007 and 2012 saw two Reyes del Aire tournaments. The tournament includes a varying number of wrestlers, competing in a Torneo cibernetico match, essentially a multi-man elimination match with the last competitor remaining is declared that year's Rey del Aire and is given a trophy. CMLL holds a similar tournament for their Mini-Estrella division called Pequeños Reyes del Aire ("Little Kings of the Air"). Being a professional wrestling tournament, it is not won legitimately; it is instead won via predetermined outcomes to the matches that are kept secret from the general public.

The tournament normally features low and mid-card wrestlers who work a "High flying" style, hence the name "Kings of the Air" but has at times featured more wrestlers closer to the main event or closer to the low card positions. The winner gets a trophy, but there is no other tangible reward for winning the match other than the increased recognition, they are not awarded with a championship match or anything else of that nature. There have been eighteen tournaments so far, with three wrestlers winning more than one tournament; Volador Jr. has won three tournaments in total while Ángel de Oro and Valiente has won two. Ángel de Oro is the only wrestler to win consecutive tournaments as he won both the 2011 and the first 2012 Reyes del Aire tournaments. A total of 85 luchadors have appeared in the eighteen tournaments so far, with Valiente and Stuka Jr. having appeared in ten out of those. Five men have participated under two different ring identities, in some cases without the previous identity being acknowledged. Niebla Roja has appeared both under that name and his previous identity, Ángel de Plata. Dragón Rojo Jr. appeared as Diamante Negro, before being given his current ring character. Metálico worked as Tigre Metálico in the very first Reyes del Aire and opening match worker Bengala also participated in the 2007 tournament as Sombra de Plata. The only one where the name change has been publicly acknowledged was Flash adopting the identity of Fuego.[Note 1] The youngest tournament winner was La Sombra, who was 18 years old when he won the 2013 Reyes del Aire and he is also the youngest participant overall. Virus is the oldest Reyes del Aire, winning the second tournament in 2007 at the age of 38, with his participation in the 2012 Reyes del Aire he also became the oldest overall competitor at 43 years of age.
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