What would the Cruiserweight division look like today?

[Nick Black]

When I watch older PPV's on WWE Network, I'm always floored by the cruiserweights flying off the ropes, and being fantastic technical wrestlers. I miss the days when they were really showcased on WWETV instead of turned into jobbers or not being on television at all.

• Would you want to see the division back?
• Do you think it would fit into RAW every week, or should it have its own show?
• Who would you put in it? (Any active wrestler allowed)

Personally, I would love to see it return. They should have a match or two every week on either their own show or on RAW considering the viewership does die down at the end. If I could pull any wrestlers to be on the show, I'd call for the return of John Morrison, and Paul London, and have Del Rio, Sin Cara, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston and Rey Mysterio in the division. (Obviously I'm missing some). It'd give most of them something to actually do as opposed to pointless feuds and being inactive.

What do you think?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Does high flying make you a fantastic technical wrestler?

It shouldn't return. People like Tyson Kidd should have a larger role on the roster, but nobody really cares that he doesn't. The smaller talent that get over will find their way onto TV regardless. WWE also doesn't present Cruiserweights in the way people want to see Cruiserweights, so what's the fuckin' point, man!

 

[Nick Black]

Ah. I see why you would have thought that. My bad.

I see your point entirely. It's just something I really miss watching. I just love me some good technical wrestling, and I would love to see the guys who never get featured unless they're in a tag team or pushed so much by the fans, they somehow get air time. Someone like Kidd should be seen much more. Yet, WWE won't let them show off their skills. They all need "storylines". I just like good wrestling, and it's much less common to catch these days.

 

[MattRhys20]

Depending on what weight they use (I've seen numerous weights been batted around for what they ACTUALLY use for cruiser weights), you'd genuinely be amazed who qualifies.

According to Wikipedia (the MOST reliable source on the internet), it's 225lb... which means you can have CM Punk as the inaugural champion and have it mean something straight away.

Dolph Ziggler is only 213, Miz 222. You don't HAVE to be a high-flying guy like Sin Cara or Tyson Kidd to be a cruiserweight these days

 

[LODemolition]

Like I've said before, the only way I'd be for it is if it would give exposure to guys who usually don't get it. Guys like Kidd and Gabriel feuding over the title would interest me.

 

[wrestler36]

Yes, I would like to see the cruiserweight division back. But as stated by a previous poster, it is stories that will make people buy PPVs (I guess the Network now). As much as I loved Mysterio, Juvi, Guerrero, Malenko and others, the high flying style doesn't sell tickets the way that stories do. That's why Jericho/Malenko was successful in WCW. Nowadays, I'd like to see the division feature Kidd, Evan Bourne, whoever plays Sin Cara, etc. Maybe start a tournament with 8 to 16 guys for weeks and have the finals match on a PPV, like Summerslam or something like that

 

[LegendKiller716]

If they brought it back, it should be a cruiserweight show on the network like was rumored way back. I think it should be mostly focused on high flyers, but everyone will have a place.

Sin Cara, Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio, Justin Gabriel, Seth Rollins, and Tyson Kidd are the guys I'd build around... If you want the title to immediately hold value, have Triple H make Bryan join the division, and become the first champ.

 

[NancyBenoit]

It would be cool for a little while and then they would start bringing in a million masked wrestlers from mexico and japan that would bore the normal fans to death. On that note remember how horrible wcw was with la parka, psicosis, el gato...oh they were worse than the wwe divas

 

[oldschool26]

Cruiserweight division would thrive in this new generation.
Plus its unfair on the little guys having no storylines
And Jobbing every week to mid carders and main eventers.
Cruiserweight title would benefit wwe.
I garentee it will lift their spirits in the locker room as
They will now have something to look forward to each week.
High flying belts on ppv are crazy. Wwe now has almost every
Single high flyer star in the world with the exception of
Teddy hart, Austin Aries, prince devitt, Chavo, rich swann, ricochet, e.t.c

P.s I think Bryan,ziggler,Rhodes, miz, Kingston, Kidd,
Del Rio,fandango,Slater,Rollins,Ambrose, should not be eligible
For a cruiserweight title. Sure I would love to see matches like
Rollins vs mysterio etc but not for a cruiserweight title.
Bryan, ziggler, Rhodes, Ambrose, Rollins I would love to see main event soon.
Through 2014. Kidd would like to see him win that u.s.a title.
Lets say swagger(c) vs delrio vs Kidd:usa,Canada,Mexico
In a submission match.maybe add miz. That would put Kidd over.

At mania for pre show have mysterio vs sin cara for vacant title

Look how awesome the division will be

Mysterio
Sin cara
Evan Bourne
Justin Gabriel
Youshi tatsu
El torito
Sammy zayne
Solomon Crowe
Xavier woods
Adriann Neville
Kalisto

There would be some great high flying wrestling

 

[rbv13]

I've seen some really solid names and some match ups but why would there be a need for a new championship? Everything mentioned could be done with the US title.

 

[oldschool26]

How ever if you want a cruiserweight title I actually
Would merge the intercontinental/USA/ .
But here's the catch. I would not call the cruiserweight title
Cruiserweight or light heavyweight. I would have something
New that would glue in the fans. Have all the exciting
Wrestlers fight for that title. I would call it the universal
Championship. After Daniel Bryan has his wwe heavyweight run
He will love this division

Wwe heavyweight
Intercontinental/USA
Universal
Divas
Tag

Picture this for my universal contenders

Daniel Bryan
Dolph ziggler
Cody Rhodes
Fandango
Tyson Kidd
Seth Rollins
Kofi Kingston
Rey mysterio
Sin cara
Evan Bourne
Justin Gabriel
Bo dallas
Sammy zayne
Xavier woods
Adriann Neville
Kalisto
Solomon Crowe
Tyler breeze

 

[Dudeluv]

in my opinion i think it would be great to have that back.
giving these guys something to fight for and giving them some legitimacy rather than having some of them wait to be shoved into a random tag team randomly in hopes of becoming a tag champ at some point. otherwise they just get stuck in jobber matches, comic roles or meaningless feuds (IF that). Guys like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio all began winning those very belts..

id like to see some of these guys actually FIGHT for something. thats what makes it entertaining... In my opinion...

 

[zones.]

I don't think it would work nowadays. I'd personally love to see a show made around the smaller guys but I don't think most would agree. The kids would, as the younger audience seems to always get behind the smaller faster guys, but idk how successful it would be still. However, anything that gets THE MAN THAT GRAVITY FORGOT on my TV screen is good to me. Adrienne Neville and sami zane would thrive in a setting where they could show the skill that got them wwe jobs in the first place.

 

[RedRegan1005]

The Cruiser weight Division is great in theory, but it comes with two big downsides.

One- WWE doesn't even take time to give the midcard good story lines, so they would take absolutely no time towards giving the cruiser weight title good ones. Then guys have to go out there and do crazy moves, and put themselves at risk in order to get the crowd going, cause the WWE will put nothing into trying to make match ups more interesting for the fans before the match even starts.

Two- Sometimes it leads to talented guys getting labeled a cruiserweight guy. And some times guys can't escape that label.

 

[Dudeluv]

The Cruiser weight Division is great in theory, but it comes with two big downsides.

One- WWE doesn't even take time to give the midcard good story lines, so they would take absolutely no time towards giving the cruiser weight title good ones. Then guys have to go out there and do crazy moves, and put themselves at risk in order to get the crowd going, cause the WWE will put nothing into trying to make match ups more interesting for the fans before the match even starts.

Two- Sometimes it leads to talented guys getting labeled a cruiserweight guy. And some times guys can't escape that label.

i dont think its only for the kids...
we had it in the attitude era...where anything and everything happened. adults were all over it. i just find it to be pure laziness.

i guess the WWE as a company is focusing on a lot more things than just story lines and matches.

with all these reality shows coming out and movies and what have you they are expanding into something that isn't just wrestling anymore..

but the PG era is in and the cruiserweight division is out so if that argument was true you'd think with the massive child fan base they would bring back that division...

 

[Dudeluv]

btw that kids reply was obviously for zones lol ma bad renegade..

 

[WWFan79]

Lol, you'd have cruiserweights fighting to be World Champs by today's weight and size standards. A cruiserweight today would need to be 185 pounds.

 

[enviousdominous]

I think the teeter-totter effect of "Let's do this" and "Let's undo what we just did" has run it's course already.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Cruiser-weight division brought back, I don't think I would have minded the scenario you suggest if it was never dismantled.

I think the WWE felt that there was more money in pushing personalities in regard to the strength of their character and not just in regard to a specified weight class. Rey Mysterio was, and to some extent still is, a perennial favorite. Giving him the World Title was (don't laugh) a good move in my mind, it gave fans what they seem to want out of the Daniel Bryan saga. Rey could take stiff bumps and keep launching around the ring in some really high spots, his opponents didn't have to strain themselves on his behalf unlike when Mistico was brought over.

I realize that pushing Rey to the main card didn't have to involve removing a place on the card for smaller guys, even then I can see why the smaller guys would have wanted to enter matches with the bigger guys. You tell the classic David and Goliath story and you share off of each other's popularity.

I think if the cruiser-weight division had never been future endeavored, the show would be about the same in terms of popularity. I think the WWE would have tried giving them their own weekly show and possibly their own PPVs. I think the show might have worked, but the PPV would have been tried and scrapped for low buy-rates. At this time, I think the cruiser-weight division would be an NXT exclusive. I think that the NXT Champion would be granted something along the lines of a big or small time try-out to see if they can hang with the big dogs. Obviously they would have to explain on air that weight divisions are only a suggestion and that anybody with enough courage can spar with the heavyweights.

I think that if the WWE up and decided to bring the division back, it wouldn't work. It would stay just because the WWE would have sunk enough of their reputation into it that pass or fail it would still exist. We already have all types involved in NXT, and we already have all types involved in the main roster. It would look silly if suddenly guys like Sami Zayn or Adrian Neville only wanted to join the WWE roster to vie for the cruiser-weight belt.

 

[Softcore Holly]

Torito would be CW champ. That's not a joke, I have no doubt he would be the champ if the CW division was around today. This is not to knock on the man since I know he's actually really talented, but he's still a guy in a bull costume meant for the kids. And the main reason he would be champ isn't for his talent, but it would be that the CW division would be treated as so unimportant that the bull mascot would be repeatedly beating guys like Heath Slater and Fandango (I know he's a little over the weight limit) for cheap laughs.

Sad truth is if they won't do anything interesting with their other mid-card titles despite having a ton of mid-card talent, what hope does a division have with a restricted weight class? Especially since most of those guys barely gets screen time as it is.

 

[TDFG]

•Would you want to see the division back?
•Do you think it would fit into RAW every week, or should it have its own show?
•Who would you put in it? (Any active wrestler allowed)

I'd like to see the cruiserweight division back, but WWE has tried it a couple of times and they didn't seem to know or care about the division.

3 hrs of Raw every week, yes there is more than enough time to have a cruiserweight match on Raw & Smackdown for that matter.

There is quite a few guys on the roster that could be in that division:-
Seth Rollins, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, McIntyre, Slater, Yoshi Tatsu, Evan Bourne, Hunico.

 

[TDFG]

Torito would be CW champ. That's not a joke, I have no doubt he would be the champ if the CW division was around today. Reason being that the CW division would be treated as so unimportant that the bull mascot would be repeatedly beating guys like Heath Slater and Fandango (I know he's a little over the weight limit) for cheap laughs.

Your right there. Look at how Chavo lost week in/out to Hornswoggle, Jacqueline even had a title reign.

If there is one reason to miss WCW, it's the Cruiserweights.

 

[Hillali2]

The only way I ever see the cruiserweight division making a comeback anytime soon would be through the rumoured wwe network cruiserweight show (which I believe they aren't moving forward with now). Which is a shame because it would have been an outlet for talents like Tyson Kidd, Seth Rollins and Evan bourne to showcase there skills, not to mention so many of the new talents coming up just now.

I would personally like to see this show, It would be a great way to introduce cruiserweight wrestling back into the mainstream wwe. By that I mean that it has been missing for quite some time now. Smackdown used to have some great high flying action. So many younger fans haven't seen high quality high flying wrestling because they weren't around at the height of its popularity on wcw or wwe. I would also bring back the cruiserweight title and have it defended only on the show and top 4 ppvs. That way it would be its own separate division.

 

[@smarkmouth]

I completely understand why this topic is reincarnated semi monthly, but unfortunately it's not for a good reason.

When people ask for a reemergence of a cruiserweight division, they are asking the same question as when they ask for a new version of the nWo or Evolution, or when they ask for a return from Steve Austin or Chris Jericho. They ask for nostalgia. Well, there's good news, and there's the kind of news Wade Barrett delivers.

The good news is, you're asking for nostalgia, well, I've got a deal for you! There was a program years ago called WCW Monday Nitro, which oft went on to highlight their cruiserweight division. The cruiserweight matches were a staple in the Monday night wars, and for the low-low price of 9.99$ a month, you can subscribe to the WWE Network. With the WWE Network, you will be privy to a plethora of original contact, including an ever expanding library or classic episodes of both Monday Night Raw, and, yep, you guessed it, WCW Monday Nitro.

(Are you living outside of the USA? That's okay. Just youtube "WCW X vs" and see what comes up. Substitute X for Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko, Eddie, Chavo, La Parka, Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, or Bret Hart's most respected rival, El Dandy and see what comes up and enjoy!)

Now, the bad news, and I hate to break it to you so bluntly, is this. WWE has absolutely no fucks to give for their current mid card championships! There has been no relevant feuds for these belts in a very, very long time. I concede that there have been improvements with the current reigns of Big E and Dean Ambrose, but there are still miles to go before creative sleeps. The only way WWE should ever add a new championship is if there's excess fucks to give over their current titles, and not just for a week or two. Once WWE returns to the point where fans are tuning in for the midcard, (which won't happen until they give the mid card ample TV time, which won't happen until they find a new #1 megastar) then they could consider a cruiserweight title.

Although, maybe you can rally for the cruiserweight belt so Daniel Bryan is a shoe in for a championship. Oops, Pipebomb.

 

[Slash-LN]

Would you want to see the division back?
If they were able to do it as well as WCW then yes.

Do you think it would fit into RAW every week, or should it have its own show?
I'd like to see it on Raw or Smackdown or both. It would be a selling point for me. If it were just a WWE Network show I would definitely watch it.

Who would you put in it? (Any active wrestler allowed)

Using 225 as a cutoff and just sticking with the current WWE and NXT rosters.

Christian. Having a good veteran in the mix would be good. He can still put on decent matches and could probably have some good feuds to generate some interest.

Cody Rhodes. They could still use him on the main shows for other things but they could interject him into the division at times to help out.

Curt Hawkins. He barely makes the cut but is listed at 223 lbs. He isn't doing much of anything right now anyway. Get him on television more often.

Epico. He's still listed as Epico on the roster. On nights where he isn't wrestling as part of Los Matadores he can wrestle in the Cruiserweight division. It doesn't hurt to have a rounded out division.

Evan Bourne. If he ever comes back this is a perfect fit for him. He's an exciting wrestler to watch and he's small. Even in terms of cruiserweights. I doubt he's going to ever do anything anyway. He could be a champ here.

Heath Slater. He can keep the gimmick and everything. 3MB hasn't done too much lately. This would give him a chance at more air time at least. He could even possibly go back to being a one man band and split from the other two.

Hunico both as himself or as Sin Cara. He can mix it up if he needs to or keep Sin Cara for Raw and be Hunico on Smackdown or a Network show. He could use Camacho as his bodyguard and that whole standard thing.

Jinder Mahal is smaller than I realized being listed at 222 lbs. He could easily work in the division. Cruiserweights don't all have to be high fliers. He could break that stereotype or even have a gimmick where he's against it.

Justin Gabriel. Another guy who has nothing going on. He has an exciting finisher and can probably get some good matches by working with some of the other guys. It gets him on television more as well. Just like some of the other wrestlers.

Kofi Kingston. He's stuck in mid card limbo anyway. Every time it he gets a push it goes away pretty quick. This would be perfect for him as he would be one of the faces of the division.

Primo. Just like Epico he can do cruiserweight matches when needed and still do the Los Matadores stuff. It won't hurt him at all.

Tyson Kidd. He'd be my favorite in this division and I'd love to see him at the top of it. I feel like he's never going to get a mid-card title like I want him to so I'd settle for this. He could show off his skill.

Xavier Woods. I may not be paying close enough attention but I haven't seen him lately. It seems like he's getting lost in the shuffle. He could showcase himself here.

Yoshi Tatsu. He can help put people over. It doesn't hurt to have another veteran on a roster. He's been wrestling professionally since 2002. I'm sure he's learned enough in that time that he can help out some of the younger guys.

Zack Ryder. He's another guy that has nothing going for him right now anyway. I'm sure he wouldn't mind having more exposure. He's a name that casuals know so it could help legitimize the division.

There's around 15 guys on the current roster alone that I would include. Some of them would wrestle outside the division as well but they would also help establish some of the guys within the division.

Some can use more than one persona so that widens things even more.

NXT

Adam Rose
Adrian Neville
Aiden English
CJ Parker
Enzo Amore
Oliver Grey
Sami Zayn
Scott Dawson
Sylvester Lefort
Tyler Breeze

There's a long list of guys in NXT who could easily fit into the division. They could even create a division in NXT. Obviously some of these guys are going to get called up to the main roster either way but for some who may only get up there this way it would be good.

The only downside is that with WWE logic if there was a Cruiser division they wouldn't have to push some of these guys to the main titles and that may hurt careers in the end.

So selfishly, yes, I would like there to be a cruiser division. Mainly just to see some of the wrestlers I like actually get airtime.

 

[Hillali2]

I totally agree Slash-LN, how many of these guys that you listed have been inactive because creative just doesn't have anything for them? The Cruiserweight division could be the answer. They could make the division based around athleticism and ability and build feuds that way rather than through some bs storyline that no one cares remotely about. They could use it to help create/find the next Chris Jericho or Eddie Guerrero. Guys like Christian and Kofi Kingston would fit well into it.