What ever happened to the Cruiserweight title?

[kenvin100]

I watched wrestling on an on/off basis since 2004 and Im just curious, what ever happened to the cruiserweight title? Why was it taken away? It wasnt that bad of a title was it?

 

[ad21k]

The crusierweight title was meaningless, the lack of mainstream popularity for crusierweight wrestling in the majority of WWE's terrorities (USA, Canada, and Europe mostly) meant that there was little demand to see cruiserweight style of wrestling.

In addition I have argued in the past, and I'm sure it was a consideration when WWE took the decision that crusierweight wrestling generally teaches wrestlers the wrong thing. Instead of learning to storytell, and perfecting selling opponents offense, some wrestlers are conned into believing that the most iportant thing about wrestling is who can hit the best move, or how many spots you can fit into a match. WWE obviously doesnt want young talent, picking up bad habits because these wrestlers become almost useless when you bring them out of the circus style of cruiserweight wrestling.

Another factor is WWE had too many championships, it still did. WWE decided to get rid of the one with the least credibility/prestige/importance - common sense really.

The final factor was probably that TNA were building the X-division around these type of wrestlers. A huge mistake on TNA's part looking back at it, Vince possibly saw what the x-division was doing to TNA and how it was starting to drag the credibility of TNA down, WWE obviously wasn't going to invest in a type of wrestling that is failing, when another company had already invested in it with little sucess. WWE deciced to distance itself from cruiserweight wrestling which a good decision in my book.

 

[Louie Lips]

Personally, when I first started watching in like 2003, I liked the Cruiserweight division. It had guys like Mysterio, Matt Hardy, Chavo, Hurricane, etc. It was great. I'll never forget Mysterio vs. Hardy at WM XIX.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I am glad the Cruiserweight Title is gone. There are enough titles to keep track of, as opposed to adding the Cruiserweight, Hardcore, and European Championships to the fold, as well.

 

[Jappa121]

there was a match that anyone can join to get the title, hornswoggle entered the ring, and then hid under it after the first bell rang, at the end of the match he came up and got a pin after someone did their finisher. He had the title. Then teddy long took the belt off of him cause it would be dangerous for hornswoggle to defend it. Then they didnt do anything with it after that

is that what you wanted to know yo?

 

[MrLee]

I REALLY miss the cruiserweight title!
I'd rather see that divison, then TWO womens titles in WWE.

Thought that it added diversity to, especially to NITRO back in the days, and was a great way, to showcase another type of wrestling.

Only reason that it lacked popularity in WWE, was because Vince didn't push it as a serious division! Hed he done so, i truely belive, that the cruiserweigths could've been a major factor on WWE TV today.

As for teaching wrestlers the "wrong thing", that's just plain stupid!
Watch early matches from WCW/ECW/AAA/MPW/WAR with Mysterio, Psicosis, Great Sasuke, Ultimo Dragon........HECK, watch the Super J Cups from the Mid-90's, those were AWESOME and sure as hell told alot of stories!

Again, Vince booked the division to fail.

But I will say, that there are SOME wrestlers out there, who just wanna cram in move after move and don't sell for shit, BUT, if you book their matches correctly, just like the heavyweights, they'd catch on in a second!

 

[Scott Free]

The crusierweight title was meaningless, the lack of mainstream popularity for crusierweight wrestling in the majority of WWE's terrorities (USA, Canada, and Europe mostly) meant that there was little demand to see cruiserweight style of wrestling.

In addition I have argued in the past, and I'm sure it was a consideration when WWE took the decision that crusierweight wrestling generally teaches wrestlers the wrong thing. Instead of learning to storytell, and perfecting selling opponents offense, some wrestlers are conned into believing that the most iportant thing about wrestling is who can hit the best move, or how many spots you can fit into a match. WWE obviously doesnt want young talent, picking up bad habits because these wrestlers become almost useless when you bring them out of the circus style of cruiserweight wrestling.

Another factor is WWE had too many championships, it still did. WWE decided to get rid of the one with the least credibility/prestige/importance - common sense really.

The final factor was probably that TNA were building the X-division around these type of wrestlers. A huge mistake on TNA's part looking back at it, Vince possibly saw what the x-division was doing to TNA and how it was starting to drag the credibility of TNA down, WWE obviously wasn't going to invest in a type of wrestling that is failing, when another company had already invested in it with little sucess. WWE deciced to distance itself from cruiserweight wrestling which a good decision in my book.

I agree with the too many championships part, but disagree with your
overall devaluation of cruiserweights as a failure.
If you took one look at Rey Mysterio , the Hardys, and Evan Borne, you
might realize that cruiserweights aren't as unpopular as you'd like to believe.
Fact is, Vince likes big men (pun intended).
As far as your theory that actually working a match, like they do in the X division could be viewed as a "bad habit", well, you can tell that the Great
Khali has not acquired such a habit, because he's a master of storytelling and
selling his opponent offense...ok, maybe he's not a master, but he's more
of a circus attraction than a wrestler, which brings me to the point I want to
make, the WWE is much more circus-like than you might think.
Vince K. McMahon patterns himself after another famous Connecticut native,
P.T. Barnum, whom was an avid believer that hype was might.
You see, a circus has elephants, the strong men, clowns and midgets but
also trapeze artists and acrobats, and if you look closely, you will see all
these elements in the current WWE roster, but the real truth is, cruiserweight
style is much more high risk than having two huge roiders trading punches and clotheslines in the ring, so it has to be played down by the WWE because they don't like injuries to interfere with their massive schedule, and besides,it makes the big guys look bad.

BTW: The TNA X-Division did not fail, it was their non-existent promotional
division that failed.

 

[kenvin100]

I am glad the Cruiserweight Title is gone. There are enough titles to keep track of, as opposed to adding the Cruiserweight, Hardcore, and European Championships to the fold, as well.

I have to agree with one of the posters. Having the cruiserweight title is better than 2 womens titles. But comparing the cruiserweight title against hardcore is wrong. Hardcore title is the biggest joke of a title I've ever heard. I remember there was one specific night where this title went to 8 people, 2-3 women and a couple guys, now thats STUPID! I can see why the Euro title is gone to some extent though..

 

[LokiCobain]

In addition I have argued in the past, and I'm sure it was a consideration when WWE took the decision that crusierweight wrestling generally teaches wrestlers the wrong thing. Instead of learning to storytell, and perfecting selling opponents offense, some wrestlers are conned into believing that the most iportant thing about wrestling is who can hit the best move, or how many spots you can fit into a match. WWE obviously doesnt want young talent, picking up bad habits because these wrestlers become almost useless when you bring them out of the circus style of cruiserweight wrestling.

I agree with you on one level, and it's only because of Vince. Vince's last concern is actual wrestling. He wants guys that appear the part, and Cruiserweights are simply too small for his liking. BUT, I disagree with you 100% when you say that the fans don't enjoy the Cruiserweights. Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio's popularity comes from their high-flying nature. Jeff is a combo of a sort of Cruiserweight, tied in with hardcore mentality, which fans also like. WWE doesn't use the Cruiserweights well, and never did, because Vince doesn't like it. Evan Bourne? His popularity BOOMED after he did one move.

They're not "bad habits" at all. Head WCW guys would tell you that it was the Cruiserweights that carried the company in 90s, and helped distinguish them from WWE during the wars. The main storyline of nWo rarely had actual matches, it was more mugging, and it was guys like Ultimo Dragon, Psychosis, Eddie and Chris Jericho that put on the great matches.

Also, I don't know what you mean by saying that the X-division loses credibility for TNA...

 

[realblackhart]

Some of you guys have very good points. Two womens titles doesn't make any sense to me. Hornswoggle getting the crusierweight title makes no sense to me either. I don't agree at all with...

The crusierweight title was meaningless, the lack of mainstream popularity for crusierweight wrestling in the majority of WWE's terrorities (USA, Canada, and Europe mostly) meant that there was little demand to see cruiserweight style of wrestling.

In addition I have argued in the past, and I'm sure it was a consideration when WWE took the decision that crusierweight wrestling generally teaches wrestlers the wrong thing. Instead of learning to storytell, and perfecting selling opponents offense, some wrestlers are conned into believing that the most iportant thing about wrestling is who can hit the best move, or how many spots you can fit into a match. WWE obviously doesnt want young talent, picking up bad habits because these wrestlers become almost useless when you bring them out of the circus style of cruiserweight wrestling.

Another factor is WWE had too many championships, it still did. WWE decided

Crusierweight style was very poular in WCW and that was because thats the only thing they knew how to do correctly. I know that Vince loves the story telling part of wrestling but you can not sit there and tell me that it's what wrestling is all about. I know that there are enough fans out there who enjoy watching a good match, with some good spots, and watch them outdo each other. The only problem with the cruiserweight title is that the WWE does not know how to sell it. They tried the Light heavyweight title to compete with WCW's crusierweigh title and failed. They never had enough cruiserweights to showcase the title. The WCW roster was jam packed with these Japeneese and Mexican wrestlers who made a living in their countries wrestling this style. Mcmahon had opportunities to sell the crusierweight title but wanted to focus more on his main titles and so his crusierweight title faltered. Yes the WWE has enough titles but if they had the right people in charge of a division like this, I think that it would do well. These guys can't be wrestling guys like the Big Show, Undertaker, Kane, and Khali because it hurts the division. We don't need to watch a match like Big Show vs Taka, and Tajiri because we know what the result is going to be. A match like that hurts the division. Cruiserweights have a lot to offer to the business. I don't think that this would hurt the WWE, but currently the WWE doesn't have the wrestlers available in their roster to showcase this title.

 

[klunderbunker]

I wish it was still around to an extent. It would be far better than the Divas title. That title holds no prestiege, no meaning, no anything. What does it serve? The Crusierweight belt would at least have some people interested in some of the matches. Sure tehy would be spot fests, but if taht's all they're meant to be, then what's wrong with it? Putting it on Horny was just ridiculous as is his whole character. It made the title look stupid and then Vince made the decision to end the division because of it. That's just a shame.

 

[ThE uNdErTaKeR17-0]

I say good bye to the cruiser-weight title i mean it wasnt exciting i dont have anything really to say about the title because it was a very boring title and anyways the cruiser-weight was limited to a small amount of people not everyone could participate in cruiser-weight matches.

 

[George Michael]

ECW may be the best place to relaunch the Cruiserweight title. Instead of having spot monkeys fight for it, have it as the midcard title for that show. It seems that many who have held the title in the past (Eddie, Mysterio, Jericho...) have won major heavyweight titles since, so there is a shred of credibility in its lineage. If the WWE has focused on the cruiserweight success stories, maybe the title could have survived. People need to forget about the Billy Kidman's, Paul London's and Dean Milenko's of the world and see some future stars in training put on a solid midcard match.

 

[Crush1]

It died. Like all old things they die. The Cruiserweight title was a great invention but unfortunately it lacked the wrestlers that could carry it into this day and age. If more wrestlers like the mid carders we have today were in the day that the Cruiserweight title was still around, it would have lived on. But now there is no choice but to move on because I assure you that there is no way that the Cruiserweight Championship is returning.

 

[Dysturbed]

WCW's division had three thigns that WWE's lacked 1) a large lucha libre group, 2) matches just for entertainment and not always for a more defined purpose, and 3) less restrictions. Where number one is concerned I'm not sure if WWE needed too many luchadores and they did of course have some but it was something that really helped WCW's division stand out. Where number two is concerned, in WWE that is, ther than the occasional match, the cruiserweight related matches usually were for a storyline reason whereas in WCW we often saw 6 man matches or one on one matches just for entertainment purposes. If WWE did that more often, more people may have appreciated the division. Where the third thing is concerned I understand the restrictions in WWE and even with them the cruiserweights had and have good matches. However the division as we knew it before WWE was never going to be duplicated with WWE's philosophies so to me it's for the best that it's gone.

I do think that ECW would be a nice place for it though, as others have mentioned.

 

[Azamuth]

I think the title just died because of the restrictions of the WWE. When I hear Cruiserweight or Lightweight Championships im thinking of people like Dean Malenko, Jack Evans, Ultimo Dragon or Chris Sabin. When I see Vince's product I just dont know if that title fits in with the company.

 

[MoneyMack]

I've been hoping Vince would bring back the Cruiserweight title for a while now. Its great, fast paced wrestling! With names like: Kendrick, Wang-Yang, Noble, Bourne, Chavo.G and Rey Rey- I think this division would be spectacular. Throw in the possibilities of Santino, Kizarny and Ziggler (im not sure about thier weights, but all look kinda small to me) Now throw in the recent TNA releases of Petey Williams, Sonjay and Jimmy Rave- Thats a pretty nice division right there- filled with fast paced, high flying "superstars"!

I never really thought about where to put the division at, but as suggested previously- ECW is a good idea. Thats where Vince puts all his "projects". Let the division flourish over there and Vince will see it blow-up. Then probably want to move it to Smackdown or even Raw. Although- I wouldnt want it on Raw, it could be a nice addition to Smackdown.

Im just sick to death watching Rey Mysterio win matches over big guys like Kane and Mike Knox! It's rediculous! I obviously understand that pro wrestling isnt "real" but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE- make it SOMEWHAT REALISTIC!! Adding the cruiserweight division will take care of these "David over Goliath" BS matches!!

 

[Blade]

Admittedly the Cruiserweight division was good in the post- invasion era....

But after the best of the division started to move on to getting the upper mid-card titles and that caused it to fall apart.

So I guess you just gotta watch TNA for all the great high flying action of the cruiserweight division.