The IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship (Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio IWRGL in Spanish) is a professional wrestlingchampionship promoted by the Mexican wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). Being a professional wrestling championship, it is not won legitimately: it is instead won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. 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.[Note 1][3] 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.[4]
The current champion is Imposible, having defeated Heddi Karaoui on September 4, 2016 to win the championship. Imposible is the 36th overall champion, the 22nd person to win the championship, and he is on his first reign. The first champion was Pantera, who defeated Tony Rivera in Naucalpan, Mexico on July 27, 1997 in the finals of a tournament.[2] 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.
Title history
Key
Symbol
Meaning
#
The overall championship reign
Reign
The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed.
Event
The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands
N/A
The specific information has not been found
—
Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign
+
Indicates that the number of days held by this individual changes everyday.
Indicates that there was a period where the lineage is undocumented due to the lack of documented results.
Details of the initial tournament in July, 1997 has not been verified only that Pantera II defeated Tony Rivera in the finals of an eight-man tournament.[2]
November 2007 Championship tournament
IWRG stripped Pentagón Black of the championship and started an eight-man, single elimination tournament on October 15, 2007. The final match took place on November 1, 2007 at IWRG's annual El Castillo del Terror tournament.[12]
The Middleweight Championship had been inactive since late 2007 until May 1, 2012 when IWRG officially announced that the championship was vacated and would be decided in an eight-man tournament that was the focal point of their May 6, 2013 Caravan de Campeones show.[13]
^One example the weightlimits not being strictly enforced is Mephisto winning the CMLL World Welterweight Championship, a championship with a 78 kg (172 lb) upper limit despite weighing 90 kg (200 lb).
^ abThe exact date Pantera lost the Championship is not known placing the title reign between 1 and 342 days.
^The exact date Hijo del Gladiador won the Championship is not known placing the title reign between 1 and 342 days.
^ abThe exact date Último Vampiro won the Championship is not known placing the title reign between 53 and 492 days.
^ abThe exact date on which Cerebro Negro lost the title is not documented, which means the title reign lasted between 1 and 222 days.
^ abThe exact date on which Matrix won the title is not documented, which means the title reign lasted between 13 and 234 days.
^ abThe exact date Pentagon Black vacated the Championship is not known placing the title reign between 351 and 381 days.
^ abThe exact date IWRG and CMLL stopped working together is not known placing the title reign between 35 and 60 days.
^ abcdefghijklRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: IWRG Intercontinental World Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 402. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizare& honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 29–40. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.