| IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The middleweight championship belt | |||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | International Wrestling Revolution Group | ||||||||||
| Date established | July 27, 1997[1] | ||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Arez | ||||||||||
| Date won | May 1, 2024 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship (Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio IWRGL in Spanish) is a professional wrestling championship promoted by the Mexican wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). The official definition of the Middleweight weight class in Mexico is between 82 kg (181 lb) and 87 kg (192 lb), but the weight limits are not always strictly adhered to.[a][2] Because Lucha Libre puts more emphasis on the lower weightclasses, this division is considered more important than the normally more prestigious heavyweight division of the promotion.[3]
The current champion is Arez who defeated then-champion Noisy Boy for the title on May 1, 2024. Arez is the 49th overall champion. The first champion was Pantera, who defeated Tony Rivera in Naucalpan, Mexico on July 27, 1997 in the finals of a tournament.[1] It has since been defended throughout Mexico, but primarily in Naucalpan which is the IWRG's "home ground". In November 2007 Negro Casas, who was under contract with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) but worked for IWRG under a talent sharing agreement between IWRG and CMLL, won the title. The talent sharing agreement ended in 2008 but the Middleweight championship was not declared vacant even though Negro Casas was not able to defend it. After four years of inactivity, the title was vacated and put up in a tournament in May 2012 and has been active in IWRG since.
As it is a professional wrestling championship, the championship was not won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match determined by the bookers and match makers.[b] On occasion the promotion declares a championship vacant, which means there is no champion at that point in time. This can either be due to a storyline,[c] or real life issues such as a champion suffering an injury being unable to defend the championship,[d] or leaving the company.[e]
- ^ a b c Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: IWRG Intercontinental World Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 402. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ Arturo Montiel Rojas (2001-08-30). "Reglamento de Box y Lucha Libre Professional del Estado de Mexico" (PDF). Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2009.
Articulo 242: "Super welter 82 kilos / Medio 87 kilos"
- ^ Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publisher. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
- ^ Hornbaker 2016, p. 550.
- ^ Duncan & Will 2000, p. 271.
- ^ Duncan & Will 2000, p. 20.
- ^ Duncan & Will 2000, p. 201.
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