Tijuana, Mexico 1995: legendary luchador, Fuerza Guerrera (father of Juventud Guerrera and Hija de Fuerza Guerrera) founded Promotora Mexicana de Lucha Libre, abbreviated PROMELL. Under Guerrera's ownership PROMELL had a working relationship with AAA until he sold the company to Konnan, who at the time was a part of the AAA roster. Jorge Rojas and TV Azteca (Mexico's second television network alongside Televisa) renamed the promotion as Promo Azteca.
Due to a falling out with AAA owner Antonio Pena, it was Konnan and Promo Azteca that started working with World Championship Wrestling in 1996 to develop the Cruiserweight Division, which became a factor in WCW's favor during the Monday Night Wars between WCW and Vince McMahon's WWE.
Those who went with Konnan to WCW were the aforementioned Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio Jr., La Parka (now known as L.A. Park in MLW), Damian 666 (father of Bestia 666), Ciclope (also known as Halloween), El Dandy, Super Calo. Psicosis, Villanos 4 and 5, Lizmark, Hector Garza, Silver King and Norman Smiley, who became the WCW Hardcore Champion and is now a trainer for WWE NXT.
At the time, wrestlers that were under contract to WCW could wrestle in Mexico if they were not booked for a WCW event. For two years, Promo Azteca under Konnan had their great moments. Azteca was the third big promotion south of the border, rivaling AAA and CMLL and had a weekly Friday night TV show on TV Azteca.
Promo Azteca innovated hardcore wrestling in Mexico and had factions including the Mexican chapter of the NWO with Konnan as its leader. Promo Azteca had top stars in their short two year history with the likes of former WWC World Tag Team Champion Kevin Quinn, Steele (Sean Morley, who wrestled in WWC Puerto Rico from 1995-1997 as part of The Canadian Glamour Boys and later became Val Venis in WWE), The Headhunters and Super Crazy. Promo Azteca also had a partnership with Japanese wrestling promotions bringing in legends like Tajiri, Kaz Hyashi and CIMA.
In 1997, WWC brought in stars from Promo Azteca for a special Thanksgiving weekend event in Puerto Rico called Invasion Azteca. Pierroth (Norberto Salgado), Tinieblas Jr., Mascara Sagrada, Super Parka, the retired "El Puma" Jerry Estrada appeared as did Villano 3 and El Texano in 1998.
Promo Azteca's success was short-lived and took the turn for the worse. WCW feared the luchadores would end up having career threatening injuries and cut ties with the promotion. Konnan and the mentioned above luchadores were working in the US full time, Promo Azteca's live events started to dwindle. They had to work with luchadores from Mexico's indy circuit and even had a working relationship with CMLL doing interpromotional shows. By the end of 1998, Promo Azteca had quietly closed their doors forever.
This revolutionary lucha promotion gave everything it had during its short history and was the reason for the WCW Cruiserweight division. The lineage of the WWE Cruiserweight division also traces back to Promo Azteca.
In 2001, WCW was bought by Vince McMahon and WWE, leading to Survivor Series on November 18 of that year from the Greensboro Coliseum in that historic NWA Mid-Atlantic city. As a result of the winner take all main event, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship became the WWE Cruiserweight title. The old WWE Light Heavyweight Championship was retired and the Cruiserweight Division became a part of WWE SmackDown! brand.
The Cruiserweight Championship was deactivated in 2007 until it came back with a vengeance in the summer of 2016 in the form of the Cruiserweight Classic Tournament at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. Tajiri appeared in the tournament and former WWE Superstar T.J.Perkins was the winner of the tournament and the revived WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
Due to the success of the tournament, the 205 Live brand was established to showcase wrestler promoted as being under the 205 pound weight limit of the Cruiserweight division. Rich Swann defeated Brian Kendrick to win the Cruiserweight Championship on the debut episode. Cruiserweight wrestler appeared on both WWE RAW and 205 Live until April 2018 when the 205 Live was established as a completely separate brand and the cruiserweights stopped appearing on RAW with a few notable exceptions. In October 2019, the title was renamed as the NXT Cruiserweight Championship and became part of the NXT brand. Among the wrestlers that competed in the NXT Crruiserweight Championship were Kushida, Gentleman Jack Gallagher,Tony Neese, Lio Rush, Cedric Alexander, Santos Escobar (fka El Hijo de Fantasma in AAA and as King Cuerno in Lucha Underground) and Drake Maverick.
At the WWE New Years Evil event on January 4 of this year, former NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes beat the final NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong in a unification match, and the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was once again deactivated.
Below are some Promo Azteca episodes.
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