Latino World Order

The Latino World Order is a faction that currently competes on the SmackDown brand in WWE. The current members are Rey Mysterio, Bad Bunny, Zelina Vega, Carlito, Santos Escobar, Savio Vega, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro. The faction was active in WCW in the late 1990s and was led by Eddie Guerrero. WWE Hall of Famer Mysterio reformed the group in 2023 in honor of Guerrero, who was his great friend.

History

WCW

Latino World Order was first formed in 1998 by Eddie Guerrero. The faction took its name from the New World Order, which was one of the most successful things in pro wrestling at the time. The faction was composed of mostly Mexican wrestlers and was thus named Latino.

The group first appeared on the Nitro on October 5th, when Eddie Guerrero made his WCW return after several weeks. He aligned himself with a group of Mexican wrestlers who subsequently named themselves the Latino World Order. The group's main rival was Rey Mysterio. They wanted him to join the faction but he was reluctant to do so. However, after a defeat at the hands of Guerrero, Mysterio was forced to join the faction.

The stable didn't last long as it was forced to disband after its leader suffered a car accident on the 1st of January, 1999. In the next few weeks, they were forced to remove their LWO shirts by the New World Order and were also persuaded to do so by Ric Flair. Everyone except Mysterio left LWO, and he was beaten by NWO for his reluctance.

WWE

During the buildup to the WrestleMania 39, Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, Damian Priest, and Rhea Ripley) were causing trouble for Rey Mysterio. Legado Del Fantasma helped Mysterio a few times from the villainous faction. On the March 31, 2023, episode of SmackDown, Mysterio reformed The Latino World Order and gifted the LWO shirts to Legado Del Fantasma (Zelina Vega, Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro) as a token of appreciation.

Bad Bunny also joined the group at WrestleMania 39, when he alongside Legado Del Fantasma, helped Rey Mysterio defeat his son Dominik. The group would continue their feud with The Judgment Day after the event. At Backlash, Zelina Vega challenged Rhea Ripley in a losing effort for the SmackDown Women's Championship. Also at the event, Bad Bunny defeated Damian Priest in a San Juan Street Fight after WWE legends Savio Vega and Carlito made their returns to help him chalk the victory alongside the other members of LWO.

Zelina Vega qualified for the Women's Money in the Bank match after the event. Santos Escobar qualified for the Men's match. However, at the event, both the superstars failed to bring the briefcase into the stable. Escobar and Mysterio then participated in the US Championship Invitational tournament and both reached the final. While Mysterio won that match, it was Escobar who got a match against Theory for the title because Mysterio had suffered a kayfabe injury. On the night of match on August 11, Theory took out Escobar before the match and he was replaced by the original contestant, Rey Mysterio.

The Legendary Luchador defeated Theory to become the United States Champion. Escobar, however, had not given up on the title and asked Mysterio for a title shot in September. The two faced on September 23, episode of SmackDown, where Mysterio retained his title. Following the match, they were taken out by The Street Profits and Bobby Lashley who injured both Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde. This left LWO with one member short for their six man tag team match against The Profits at Fastlane. At the event, they started one member short and were eventually joined by a returning Carlito. The Latino World Order eventually went on to win the match.

LWO WWE matches on Premium Live Events

Latino World Order members

Rey Mysterio

Rey Mysterio is the current leader of LWO and the man behind reviving the faction. Born on December 11, 1974, Mysterio is considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. The debate does not exist if we talk about wrestlers shorter than 6 ft because it might be hard to find someone shorter than 6 ft with three WWE World Championships, Three Cruiserweight titles, Three US titles, Two Intercontinental titles, Five tag team titles and a Royal Rumble victory to their name.

Zelina Vega

Zelina Vega is the only female member of the Latino World Order. Born on December 27, 1990, Vega is a former WWE Women's Tag Team Champion. She is also the inaugural, and to date the only, winner of WWE's Queen Crown. She began wrestling professionally in 2010 and worked in TNA and Indies before joining NXT in 2017. She was released by WWE in 2020 before re-joining in 2021.

Santos Escobar

Santos Escobar is the leader of Legado Del Fantasma, the group that fills up most of the Latino World Order. He was born on April 30, 1984. Escobar is also famous for his work as El Hijo Del Fantasma, the name he worked under during his time on the independent circuit. He joined WWE in 2019 and spent three years in NXT before joining SmackDown in 2022.

Joaquin Wilde

Joaquin Wilde's real name is Michael Paris and he was born on October 5, 1986 in Los Angeles, California. In 2002, he won a competition where he designed the first ever logo of Ring of Honor. The logo made by the then-15-year-old boy was used for two years by ROH. He began training for pro-wrestling months later and wrestled for about 16 years on the independent circuit and TNA before joining WWE in 2019.

Cruz Del Toro

Raul Mendoza was born on November 25, 1991 in Mexico. He made his pro-wrestling debut at the age of 14 in 2006. Having worked for promotions such as Pro Wrestling Noah, Lucha Libre AAA and International Wrestling Revolution, he came to be known as Cruz Del Toro in 2016 when he joined NXT. He joined Legado Del Fantasma in 2020 and moved to SmackDown with the group.

Carlito

Carlos Edwin Colon Coates Jr. or Carlito is a Puerto Rican wrestler born on February 21, 1979 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He began wrestling with World Wrestling Council in 1999 and made waves in pro wrestling after his debut in WWE in 2003. He most famously defeated John Cena. In WWE, Carlito has won the Tag Team Championship twice, the Intercontinental Championship and the United States Championship.

LWO Championship and Accomplishments