The Pequeño Reyes del Aire Tournament (Spanish for the "Little Kings of the Air") is an annual wrestling tournament promoted by the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and has been held since 2007, holding two tournaments in 2012, and one every other year. 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 Pequeño Rey del Aire and is given a trophy. The match is based on CMLL's Reyes del Aire tournament which has an identical purpose, format and award. The winner is not normally awarded with a match for the CMLL World Mini-Estrella Championship or the Mexican National Lightweight Championship, the two Mini-Estrellas championships that CMLL promotes, as a direct result of their tournament victory but has as times been used to build but either a championship match or storylines between rival wrestlers.
There has been a total of ten tournaments held as of January 2015, with nine different winners, only Pequeño Black Warrior has won the tournament twice.[5] A total of 27 Mini-Estrellas have appeared in the nine tournaments held so far, two wrestlers have appeared in eight of the Pequeños Reyes del Aire, Pequeño Olímpico and Pequeño Damián 666 / Demus 3:16. Demus 3:16 has the most eliminations, with nine while Último Dragoncito has eliminated 9 men. Only 4 men have competed without eliminating a single opponent Fire, Mini Maximo, Sombrita and Stukita.[Note 1]Mascarita Dorada is the youngest tournament winner ever, at 25 years of age when he won the 2008 tournament while Fantasy is the youngest competitor ever, 18 years old when he entered the 2007 tournament. Pequeño Black Warrior is the oldest tournament winner, he was 42 years old when he won the 2012 Guadalajara tournament, while Pierrothito was 46 years old when he competed in the 2014 tournament making him the oldest competitor overall.
CMLL held their first Pequeños Reyes del Aire tournament in 2007, two years after they created the Reyes del Aire for the regular roster. The match was part of CMLL's regular Friday night show CMLL Super Viernes ("Super Friday") on July 13, 2007 as a special attraction match on the under card. The wrestlers had to compete in a 10-man torneo cibernetico elimination match to win the Pequeños Reyes del Aire trophy. In 2005 the match included Bam Bam, Bracito de Oro, Eléctrico, Fantasy, Fire, , Pequeño Damián 666, , Sombrita and Pequeño Olímpico (then reigning CMLL World Mini-Estrella Champion).[3][12] Pequeño Damián 666 would win the match, eliminating Bam Bam as the last opponent to take the victory.[12] Four months after his 2007 Pequeños Reyes del Aire victory Pequeño Damián 666 would defeat Pequeño Olímpico to win the CMLL World Mini-Estrella Championship, although the title match was not a direct prize of the tournament Pequeño Damián 666's victory did elevate him up the contenders ranks.[12]
Pequeños Reyes del Aire (2007) order of elimination
CMLL held their second ever Pequeños Reyes del Aire tournament on January 6, 2008 and like the previous year it was a torneo cibernetico elimination match where the last survivor of the match would be crowned that year's Pequeño Rey del Aire.[13] Among the participants was the then reigning CMLL World Mini-Estrella ChampionPequeño Damián 666, who was actually the first man eliminated from the match. Other tournament participants included Bam Bam, Fantasy, Fire, Mascarita Dorada, , Pequeño Black Warrior, , Shockercito and Tzuki. The winner of the match was Mascarita Dorada, who had only worked for CMLL for a few months at the time and was in the middle of being built up as the focal point of the Mini-Estrellas division.[6][14]
Pequeños Reyes del Aire (2008) order of elimination
CMLL held a second Pequeños Reyes del Aire in 2012, this time in Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico on October 30, 2012. The tournament format was the traditional torneo cibernetico where the tecnico team of Aereo, Astral, Fantasy, Pequeño Halcón, Shockercito and Último Dragóncito faced off against the rudo team of Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pequeño Black Warrior, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia and Pierrothito. During the match Shockercito hurt himself on a dive. Pequeño Black Warrior won the match to become the first man to ever win two Pequeños Reyes del Aire tournaments.[10] The 12 Mini-Estrellas involved in the tournament would face off again a week later inside a steel cage match, contested under Luchas de Apuestas ("Bet match") where everyone will risk either their mask or their hair.[20]
Pequeños Reyes del Aire 2012 (Guadalajara) order of elimination
CMLL held the 2014 version of the Pequeños Reyes del Aire tournament on January 5, 2014, in Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. The ninth annual tournament featured a total of 10 Mini-Estrellas: Astral, Demus 3:16, Eléctrico, Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito, Shockercito, Stukita and Último Dragóncito. The match came down to Astral and Eléctrico, both on the same team during the early portions of the match. In end Eléctrico landed badly on a dive to the outside onto Astral and hurt both himself and Astral. When Astral was unable to compete he was counted out and Eléctrico was declared the winner. The impact from the dive was so severe that both Astral and Eléctrico ended up having to go to the hospital after the match.[1][2]
Pequeños Reyes del Aire (2014) order of elimination
The 2015 Pequeños Reyes del Aire (Spanish for "Little Kings of the Air") tournament was the tenth version of an annual professional wrestling tournament held by Mexican lucha libre promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) that started in 2007. The tournament is exclusively for competitors in CMLL's Mini-Estrellas division and is their version of the regular division's Reyes del Aire tournament and has the same multi-man torneo cibernetico elimination format. The 2015 version of the tournament saw five tecnicos (wrestling term for the "good guys") face off against five rudos (the "bad guys") wrestling until only one man remains in the ring. The tecnico team of Astral, Eléctrico, Fantasy, Shockercito and Último Dragoncito took on the rudo team of Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico and Pierrothito. In the end Shockercito pinned Pierrothito to win the 2015 Pequeños Reyes del Aire tournament, the first tournament win of Shockercito's career.[21]
Pequeños Reyes del Aire (2015) order of elimination
