The Cruiserweight Division Must Die

[tomthebodz]

Cruiserweight wrestling was one of the reasons I started watching. I loved the matches WCW was putting on in the late 90s and I was still when WWE brought the title back for a while. They they absolutely killed it. There were no good traditional CW wrestlers who would mix the high flying and technical moves.

In 2016, there are plenty of world class wrestlers who could compete. The likes of Kota Ibushi, Noam Dar, Grand Metalik and Cedric Alexander to name a few. You can really build a division around them, a 10 minute match at the start of Raw would really get the crowd going, do the same on PPV.

As long as it's done well I can see it being a success and I personally don't think it needs to die. But who knows WWE might (probably will) make a complete balls up of the whole thing.

 

[Radical]

Crusierweight Division is good. Because we can't have a Hardcore division anymore it's the next closest thing WWE can to do create a segment of the show where you go 'well, whoever is involved, there's gonna be some impressive action here.'

That's what you get with Crusierweight matches. Yes they can fly around and do more flips than necessary but that can be reigned in and the matches just resemble more of a martial arts, kung fu style where it's a "Fastest Gun in the West" feeling.

There are some great Crusierweights and a Division of them is good because most of them will never get out of that Division ... AND THAT'S A GOOD THING. It gives them a place to keep showing their stuff and showing another level.


Yes, some Cruserweights will eventually break out of that Division and do the whole David vs Goliath feud but hopefully that's pretty rare.

I'll be fine if they are involved in a few multi-man tag matches with Heavyweights but I'd like to see, mostly, these guys stay fighting in their own Division almost as if they are in their own league (basically as if they are all just continuing their battles in the Cruiserweight Classic).

Even though they'll be on Raw I'd like to see them almost in their own world like the Cruserweight Version of NXT where that Crusierweight Title is their Holy Grail and maybe the odd time they are called to be in a Tag Team Title match or a #1 Contender match for another title but ultimately lose out but can refocus on the CW Title.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've got mixed feelings, like many other people; I'd like the Cruiserweight Division to be successful but, at the same time, I can't help but feel that Vince will do something to ultimately ruin it. The one wellspring of hope I have is Triple H; Trips has a much more open mind, one that's more in tune with most modern fans, than Vince does and I think he views that the "little guys can't make it big in WWE" is a very outdated way of looking at things. After all, look at many of the wrestlers that he's signed to NXT the past several years and look at a lot of guys who've been on the main roster as well. Kofi, Ziggler, Rollins Ryder, Miz, Zayn, Cesaro, Jericho, Ambrose, Breeze, Styles and Woods are all wrestlers who could genuinely be viewed as cruiserweights, or close to it. In WWE, any of these would qualify is they dropped any where from 10 to 25 lbs.

If you've watched the Cruiserweight Classic, especially the past few weeks, then you're seeing that cruiserweight matches don't have to be mindless spotfests that don't tell a story.

 

[Shotaro]

I think the real issue is that (as others have quite rightly pointed out) the WWE needs to book its four divisions with equal weight.

There is no good reason to not have the Cruiserweight, Tag Team, Heavyweight and Women's divisions all be capable of headlining a Pay Per View. It takes strain from storylines, it will help long term with their frankly insane plan to have over twenty Pay-Per-Views a year since there will be far less fatigue if once every three shows or so the WWE or Universal Championship misses a show and lets the Cruiserweights or Tag Teams take center stage. Let's face it New Day and Enzo and Cass are the most over acts on the roster right now and Sasha, Becky and Charlotte are not that far behind the main event in terms of crowd response (the reaction to Becky and *shudder* Eva Marie on Smackdown last night was bonkers)

The IC championship has headlined PPVs in the past. I don't buy into this the WWE/Universal title MUST go on last BS that gets spouted (though I will admit that I used to) but I do think making a Championship match for any of the 6 (soon to be nine!) championships currently on the books the main event adds prestige to those titles and makes them worth fighting for.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

The only problem I have had with the Cruiserweight division coming back is that I wished it was on Smackdown like back in the day. Now, in an ideal world, Raw being 3 hours would surely mean ample time to showcase the division to the fullest right? Well we all know that's not going to be the case.

However, I am all for the idea of the division being that guys like Neville or Zayn or whoever else that is rather small actually have something worthwhile to do rather than nothing like the aforementioned 2 at this moment are doing. Creative clearly cannot handle multiple talent at one time while giving every single person something to do which is why we sit through things like a hundred Cesaro vs Sheamus matches with no rhyme or reason to them other than "hey these guys exist and aren't doing anything, lets just keep making them fight each other". Or having someone like Neville beat jobbers and random people with no chance of sniffing the top title. Adding a title like the Cruiserweight title can at least give these guys a reason to fight for something.

I was always for the idea of weight divisions in WWE, but I understand both sides of the fence in that pro wrestling isn't exactly a real combat sport and is story driven so guys like Neville (I know im using him as an example a lot) becoming massively popular and winning the top title is what makes the money. However it could work if the titles of the perspective divisions are treated as the divisions top title. It's a simple process that could headline pay per views along with the women's division or united states division. Don't want to see Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns for the Universal title for 4 pay per views straight? Well good thing we have these other awesome divisions that can be the focal point and people actually want to see so they don't get bored of the same 2 guys fighting for the heavyweight title.

All I am saying is, done right, any of the divisions could be awesome and even headline pay per views allowing for variety and excitement so you aren't getting the same feud for months on end being the focus. We go through this every year. Where some guy wins the title and has a challenger who fights him for 4 pay per views in a row or whatever. It's not something I see WWE doing, but it's something that I believe could work if executed properly. You have the time and the talent, start using them to their advantage.