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Universal Wrestling Association

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Universal Wrestling Association
AcronymUWA
FoundedJanuary 29, 1975
Defunct1995
StyleLucha Libre
HeadquartersNaucalpan
Founder(s)Francisco Flores
Ray Mendoza
Benjamín Mora, Jr.
Owner(s)Francisco Flores
Ray Mendoza
Benjamín Mora, Jr.

The Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) was a Mexican Lucha Libre or professional wrestling promotion based in Naucalpan, Mexico State that operated from 1975 until 1995. The name of the actual promotion was Promociones Mora y Asociados and later Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI) ("International wrestling") but outside of Mexico it is generally referred to as the UWA as it was the name of the fictional international sanctioning body that in storyline terms oversaw all championships promoted by LLI. The company was founded by wrestler and trainer Ray Mendoza, promoter Francisco Flores and investor Benjamín Mora, Jr. as when they broke away from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre to form their own promotion. The company had working agreements with wrestling promotions both in the United States and Japan as they worked with Lou Thesz's American-based Universal Wrestling Association, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Universal Lucha Libre (UWF), and Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP) amongst other promotions.

History

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In 1974, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL, later CMLL) founder and owner Salvador Lutteroth González brought his son into the promotion, grooming him to take over when the aging Lutteroth, Sr. eventually had to retire. This action combined with a very rigid and conservative promotional philosophy led EMLL's promoter in Naucalpan, Mexico State, Francisco Flores, EMLL wrestler and trainer Ray Mendoza and investor Benjamin Mora, Jr. to break away from EMLL to form their own company and challenge EMLL's dominance in Mexico.[1] With the impending change of management in EMLL many wrestlers who had previously been loyal to Lutteroth decided to leave with Flores, Mendoza and Mora including Mendoza's close friends Rene Guajardo and Karloff Lagarde and a number of young wrestles, frustrated with the lack of opportunities in EMLL. They formed the company Promociones Mora y Asociados (later Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI)), which would later become widely known as the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), the name of its fictional governing body which was adopted from the short-lived American-based UWA promotion ran by Lou Thesz, and held their first show on January 29, 1975, creating the first true rival for EMLL in decades.[1]

To some the promotion was known as "Lucha Libre from El Toreo de Naucalpan" (simply "El Toreo"), after the promotion's home base, El Toreo de Naucalpan, which was a building Flores had promoted wrestling in for years before the split. El Toreo de Naucalpan (a former bullring turned into an arena in 1968, now demolished and formerly located near Metro Cuatro Caminos station) became UWA's main venue, used for major title matches, their anniversary shows and significant Lucha de Apuesta (bet matches) events.

UWA's more relaxed approach to wrestling, combined with their willingness to promote younger wrestlers made the promotion a quick success as they drew repeated sell-out crowds at El Toreo de Naucalpan. The promotion was the first to elevate wrestlers such as El Canek, Dos Caras, Fishman, Villano III to main event status. El Canek became the "face of the UWA", holding the UWA World Heavyweight Championship no less than 13 times during the promotion's life span,[2] drawing full houses when he "defended Mexico's honor" against foreign wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Tatsumi Fujinami and Big Van Vader.[3][4]

The UWA also reached out to promotions around the globe and forged working relationships with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the United States and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling in Japan. This working relationship resulted in a larger influx of foreign wrestlers than EMLL was ever able to produce and also led to the UWA actually gaining exclusive rights to promote a WWF branded championship, the WWF World Light Heavyweight Championship in the early 1980s, even if the promotion does not acknowledge this lineage in their official title history today.[5]

The UWA even began working with EMLL in the 1980s, co-promoting shows and allowing EMLL to book UWA wrestlers on their shows. By the early 1990s UWA began to struggle financially as several of their top wrestlers left the company to work for EMLL who could offer them more money.

In 1992 Antonio Peña broke away from EMLL, much like the UWA had 18 years earlier, and formed a new company called Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) further affecting the UWA's finances. As the peso devaluated sharply in the mid-1990s, the UWA was forced to close its doors in 1995.[6]

Legacy

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The UWA is remembered as the place where a lot of the main event wrestlers of the 1980s and 1990s for both CMLL and AAA got their starts, including El Canek, now considered a legend in lucha libre.[4] The UWA also helped popularize the match format that is now the most common in Mexico, the Best two out of three falls six-man tag team match, or trios match when they put together the rudo (bad guy) trio Los Misioneros de la Muerte (Negro Navarro, El Signo and El Texano) and matched them up against trios of popular tecnicos (good guys) and drew so many sell-crowds that other promotions began to heavily promote the trios format as well.[1]

Los Misionares de la Muerte were originally workhorse midcarders in the UWA, but their stock rose immediately in a UWA match on November 2, 1980 in a match where the three faced Huracan Ramirez, Black Shadow, and the legendary El Santo. Santo, 63 years old at the time, suffered a legitimate heart attack during the match, which ended in a no contest while he was rushed to the hospital. The three were then re-cast as fallen angels sent to Earth to take out Santo, and were programmed against trios of other tecnicos.[7]

Championships

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The Universal Wrestling Association promoted a large number of wrestling championships, spread out over several weight classes like in professional boxing and even co-promoted championships with the WWF in the United States and with the UWF and JWP in Japan. Some UWA titles are still being used today, some in Japanese promotions who bought the rights to the belts and the name to give them a lucha libre link, others are considered more "vanity" championships, personally owned by whoever holds them and are often used more as a storyline prop, although they are at times defended and even change hands. In some cases the UWA championship belts are bought and sold by the champions.[8] At times both CMLL and AAA have acknowledged and promoted UWA championships. This has occurred as recently as 2011.

Universal Wrestling Association championships
Championship Last official champion(s) Date won Current/last champion(s) Date won Promotion(s) Active?
UWA World Heavyweight Championship El Canek March 18, 1994[2] Dr. Wagner, Jr. June 18, 2004[9] Personal No
UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship Aero Flash September 1995[10] The Wolf April 14, 2024 Fight of the Ring Yes
UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship Villano V January 1, 1994[11] Chessman August 18, 2007[12] AAA No
UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship Gran Hamada September 22, 1993[13] Súper Nova May 17, 2013 Personal No
UWA World Middleweight Championship El Texano February 12, 1995[14] Kyu Mogami June 20, 2019 Active Advance Pro Wrestling Yes
UWA World Welterweight Championship Shinjiro Otani December 13, 1994[15] — — — No
UWA World Lightweight Championship Loco Valentino September 22, 1994[16] Kancho Nagase September 3, 2015[17] Fight of the Ring Yes
UWA World Featherweight Championship Coralillo August 25, 1992[18] — — — No
UWA World Tag Team Championship Los Villanos
(Villano IV and Villano V) 		March 1993[19] Yapper Man #1 and Yapper Man #2 October 19, 2019[20] Michinoku Pro Wrestling Yes
UWA World Trios Championship Los Misionares de la Muerte
(Negro Navarro, Rocky Santana and El Signo) 		October 9, 1994[21] Aagan Iisou
(Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara and Toru Owashi) 		October 21, 2021[22] Big Japan Pro Wrestling
Pro-Wrestling Basara 		Yes
UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship Gran Hamada and Great Sasuke November 20, 1992 Kazma and Kengo Mashimo March 6, 2005[23] Michinoku Pro Wrestling No
UWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship — — Kenichiro Arai and The Wolf May 8, 2023[24] Fight of the Ring Yes
UWA Asia Pacific Heavyweight Championship — — Shogun Okamoto April 22, 2021[25] Strong Style Pro-Wrestling Yes
UWA World Women's Championship Zuleyma February 23, 1991[26] Miss Janeth 2002[27] Personal No
UWA World Women's Tag Team Championship Yumiko Hotta and Takako Inoue September 5, 1993[28] — — — No
UWA Women's International Championship Harley Saito February 11, 1991 — — — No
UWA Women's Junior Championship Cutie Suzuki October 10, 1991[29] — — — No
WWF Light Heavyweight Championship Aero Flash June 15, 1995 — — — No

Shows

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Event Date City Venue Main Event
UWA Debut Show January 29, 1975 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan Aníbal defeated Rene Guajardo[30]
UWA 1st Anniversary Show 1976 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 2nd Anniversary Show 1977 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 3rd Anniversary Show 1978 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 4th Anniversary Show 1979 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 5th Anniversary Show 1980 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 6h Anniversary Show February 7, 1981 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan El Solitario wrestled Villano III to a time-limit draw.[31]
UWA 7th Anniversary Show February 14, 1982 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan Abdullah the Butcher and Perro Aguayo defeated Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami[32]
UWA 8th Anniversary Show 1983 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 9th Anniversary Show January 29, 1984 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan El Canek defeated André the Giant[33]
UWA 10th Anniversary Show 1985 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 11th Anniversary Show 1986 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 12th Anniversary Show 1987 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 13th Anniversary Show 1988 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 14th Anniversary Show January 29, 1989 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan El Canek defeated Konnan[34]
UWA 15th Anniversary Show 1990 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan No record found for match results
UWA 16th Anniversary Show January 27, 1991 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan El Canek, Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras defeated The Hawaiian Beasts (Fatu, Great Kokina and The Samoan Savage)[35]
UWA 17th Anniversary Show January 26, 1992 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan Chris Benoit defeated Villano III[36]
UWA 18th Anniversary Show January 31, 1993 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan Vampiro defeated El Canek[37]
UWA 19th Anniversary Show January 30, 1994 Naucalpan, Mexico State El Toreo de Naucalpan Yamato, Villano III and Villano V defeated El Canek, Gran Hamada and Transformer[38]

Former personnel

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Main article: List of former Universal Wrestling Association personnel

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Madigan, Dan (2007). "Ray Mendoza and Los Villaños". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 1936–196. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  2. ^ a b Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: Universal Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 397. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  3. ^ Various (2005). "El Principle Maya / the Mayan Prince". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. pp. 58–59. ISBN 968-6842-48-9.
  4. ^ a b L.L. Staff (2008). "Lucha Libre: Conoce la historia de las leyendas de cuadrilátero". El Canek (1952) (in Spanish). Mexico. p. 15. Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre.
  5. ^ "History of the Light Heavyweight Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  6. ^ Ocampo, Ernesto (30 April 2015). "The Fall of the UWA//Toreo". superluchas.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  7. ^ Dave Meltzer (February 18, 2009). "El Santo". Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
  8. ^ Súper Luchas staff (January 3, 2006). "2005 Lo Mejor de la Lucha Mexicana". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). issue 140.
  9. ^ "Universal Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  10. ^ "Universal Wrestling Association World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  11. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: Universal Wrestling Federation Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 397. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  12. ^ "Universal Wrestling Association World Light Heavyweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  13. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: Universal Wrestling Federation Junior Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 397. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  14. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: UWA Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 399. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  15. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: UWA Welterweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 399. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  16. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: UWA Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 400. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  17. ^ "Universal Wrestling Association World Lightweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  18. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: UWA World Featherweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 398–399. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  19. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: UWA World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 398. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  20. ^ "Universal Wrestling Association World Tag Team Title [Japan]". Puroresu Dojo. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  21. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: UWA Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 399. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  22. ^ "U.W.A. World Trios Title". Puroresu Dojo. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  23. ^ "UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  24. ^ "UWA Intercontinental Tag Team Titles". WrestlingData. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  25. ^ "Real Japan Pro-Wrestling Results: 2021". PuroLove.com (in German). Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  26. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: UWA World Women's Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 399. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  27. ^ Box y Lucha staff (January 19, 2003). "2002: considerar detrás". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). issue 2593.
  28. ^ "U.W.A. World Women's Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  29. ^ "UWA/ Junior Title". wrestling-titles.com.
  30. ^ "UWA Debut Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 29, 1975. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  31. ^ Centinela, Teddy (February 7, 2015). "En un día como hoy... 1981: Aniversario independiente, Solitario vs. Villano III por el Campeonato Mundial de Peso Semicompleto UWA". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  32. ^ "7th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. February 14, 1982. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  33. ^ "9th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. February 12, 1984. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  34. ^ "14th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 29, 1989. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  35. ^ "16th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 27, 1991. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  36. ^ "17th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 26, 1992. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  37. ^ "18th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 31, 1993. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  38. ^ "19th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. January 30, 1994. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
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