What/Who tarnished the wcw crusierweight title legacy?

[medz]

Between 1996-1999, wcw had a division by the name of crusierweights. Which constantly during that period of time had stellar 5 star matches, and superb performers, names like ultimo dragon, rey mysterio, juventud, psicosis, billy kidman, as well as others, well constantly stealing the show(besides the nwo).

However............


During the second half of 1999, the crusierweight title just went downhill from then on and had no real interest in this fan here, it was no longer relevant or important, so i beg the question.


WHAT/WHO TARNISHED THE CRUSIERWEIGHT TITLE LEGACY?


I have listed my own reason below..........


1. disco inferno: the minute he beat psicosis for the belt in the second half of 99, it was the start of the belt meaning nothing anymore, therefore, becoming a joke, he hardly defended it, he was more of a brawler than a high flyer, and it was the first time a holder of this particular belt did nothing for it.


2. madusa: well, this was just bad, when she beat evan karagias for the belt at starcade, i knew it was bad, seriously?, a whiny skinny woman beating, a man(who was a decent wrestler), for the crusier belt, pathetic!


3. oklahoma: for those of you who don't know, he is ed ferrara, vince russo's right hand man, as oklahoma, he was a fat out of shape, rude, non wrestler, who was a tasteless parody of legendary wrestling commentator jim ross, who did not look like he could beat anybody.

The match between him and madusa, at souled out 2000 was the worst disgrace involving the crusierweight belt ever, what was worst was he would beat madusa for it, and then retire it the next night,(prince ieakia would go on to win a tournament to win it).


4. bringing it to wwe: this really did destroy the legacy of the title, wwe did not treat the title as well as wcw did, with sub -par matches, and non existent feuds,(and they did not have the athletes that wcw had to cover up poor feuds,by having great matches), they even have hornswoogle listed as the last holder of the crusierweight title, how tasteless.


well there are my opinions, agree, disagree, or add your own, thoughts.

 

[Post]

Let's not forget Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero.

What killed the Cruiserweight Division in WCW is what killed everything in WCW. Poor booking is huge, as the cruiserweights were nothing but curtain jerkers. WCW did not respect or value their cruiserweights. The division had no real direction.

The cruiserweight's story lines were rarely good, and there were too many goofy angles.

I disagree about the Ultimo Dragon being great...there were others at the time that deserved to be ahead of him (see the top of this post). He was overrated.

The people you mentioned, Disco, Oklahoma, and Madusa, didn't help the cause at all...props on that!

But it all comes down to booking and writing. They misused great talents because they had big names (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Sting, Flair, Luger) that got the majority of the attention.

 

[cnmasaki]

The Cruiserweight Title could've been kept strong if it was simply about competition: play to the strengths of your wrestlers. Other than Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero, can you name a Cruiserweight who really had the charisma to take a Cruiserweight Title match to the main event? I'm sure there are a couple others, but they were very few and far between.

Having a title that was simply about: "Who is the best Cruiserweight wrestler in the world" not "Who is the best sports entertainer in the world" would've been beneficial, and curtain jerking for that caliber of action would've been outstanding.

Basically what the X-Division Title was until Vince Russo and Hulk Hogan came on board. Not the guy who draws the most money, but the one that makes the IWC and old school wrestling marks go ape-sh*t. I'd love to see the X-Division go back to that and preserve the actual legacy of the Cruiserweight Title.

 

[brighamosity]

Honestly, when I saw the title of the post, I thought you were referring to what WWE has done with it.

While I completely agree that all of those things you guys mentioned were bad booking, I don't feel that they tarnished the cruiserweight title legacy for the simple fact that by that time, people had stopped watching WCW. I think I held on longer than most, but when I saw Hogan bring back the red and black and Sting make a heel turn, that was too much for me, and I never watched again.

 

[E_LICIOUS]

Everything said is true, but most true of all is that Vince McMahon has no use for cruiserweights. I love 'em and I think any true wrestling fan loves 'em, but The Real King of Kings, Mr. McMahon loves the big dudes. Your Hogans, Big Shows, Kanes and Undertakers are the personas and characters that the Boss likes. And since that is what the Boss likes then he is also the reason why the Cruiserweight division and title is dead. And the fact that Gregory Helmes held the title for a year. WTF!

 

[Spidey Revivey]

1. disco inferno: the minute he beat psicosis for the belt in the second half of 99, it was the start of the belt meaning nothing anymore, therefore, becoming a joke, he hardly defended it, he was more of a brawler than a high flyer, and it was the first time a holder of this particular belt did nothing for it.

I agree- as champion I couldn't stand seeing him around with the belt. He was bland in my opinion, and one of the guys that really made WCW's product look old (come on, the guy was trying to be this retro 70s guy- I don't recall ever seeing him as a markettable merchandise seller.)

2. madusa: well, this was just bad, when she beat evan karagias for the belt at starcade, i knew it was bad, seriously?, a whiny skinny woman beating, a man(who was a decent wrestler), for the crusier belt, pathetic!

Blame it on bad booking. That's all her reign was.

3. oklahoma: for those of you who don't know, he is ed ferrara, vince russo's right hand man, as oklahoma, he was a fat out of shape, rude, non wrestler, who was a tasteless parody of legendary wrestling commentator jim ross, who did not look like he could beat anybody.

Blame it on bad booking yet again. He was just terrible.

4. bringing it to wwe: this really did destroy the legacy of the title, wwe did not treat the title as well as wcw did, with sub -par matches, and non existent feuds,(and they did not have the athletes that wcw had to cover up poor feuds,by having great matches), they even have hornswoogle listed as the last holder of the crusierweight title, how tasteless.

Let me see here...

WCW already pretty much killed the WCW Cruiserweight Championship before it found its way to WWE, so the legacy was already dead by then. Guys like Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Gregory Helms, Tajiri, and Chavo Guerrero in my opinion kept whatever prestige the belt had alive up until the time 'Swoggle got his little mits on it.

I agree Hornswoggle as the last champion was in bad taste, but he still isn't as bad as Oklahoma. And we probably would have seen a better champion if Vickie Guerrero hadn't kayfabely stripped him of the title because she was afraid he would get hurt....

Yet 'Swoggle can wrestle Chavo Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler..stupid continuity.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

2. madusa: well, this was just bad, when she beat evan karagias for the belt at starcade, i knew it was bad, seriously?, a whiny skinny woman beating, a man(who was a decent wrestler), for the crusier belt, pathetic!

Okay, given it was poorly booked but I had no problem with Medusa holding the title as she had always been booked as a strong female character who could hold her own with the male wrestlers. I agree with your other choices- although I didn't really mind Disco (does anyone else see similarities between him and Eric Young?), he wasn't a viable champ. Bad booking killed the Cruisers heat - the Yung Dragons one member was future WWe redneck Jamie Noble- actually two members, so was Jimmy Wang Yang 3 Count - it wasn't bad enough that they had a Backstreet Boys gimmick they were then lumbered with the truly awful Tank Abbott (it says all you need to know about Vinnie Ru that he wanted to put the World Title on this bum) That Russo still makes a living in this business keeps me awake at nights