Is the CrusierWeight Title a good thing?

[Guest Whatmaniac]

While many people seem to think that the cruiserweight division is a good thing, it may not be in the best interests of the veteran cruisers to keep them confined to the cruiserweight division. The cruiserweight division itself has many of the same flaws that are inherent in any tag team division, namely, that one can only go so far. People like Rey Mysterio Jr., and Billy Kidman, IMO, have already accomplished all that they can in the crusierweight division and should be elevated to European, IC, or even WWF title contention. Chris Jericho, Chris Beniot, and to a lesser extent X-Pac are all examples of ex-cruiserweights who have experienced success working with the heavy weights. In fact, it could be said that it is imperitive that Billy Kidman and others be elevated since the Smackdown roster has a serious lack of depth at the upper-midcard. Elevating veteran cruiserweights can help alleviate that problem. If a group of wrestlers have so much talent, they should be pushed accordingly and not segregated from the rest of the roster.

 

P.S. Doesn't the cruiserweight division constitute a glass ceiling in its own right since it does segregate the cruiserweights from the rest of the roster and prevents them from competing for the most prestigious titles?

[Guest RicFlairGlory]

Sing that song to Shawn Michaels...

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I like the cruisers, but let's be honest: most of those guys won't even get anywhere *near* the Undisputed Title scene. Guys like Rey, Tajiri, Helms, etc. are just too small to be credible Undisp. Champs. Might as well just let them do their thing. Not everyone can be ME'ers.

[Guest razazteca]

well having a division based on weight class, sets up the perception that they (Cruiserweights) can only work one style, this is what prevents their advancement.

 

I agree with your overall statement. But I don't really want to see Rey Jr vs Mark Henry or Palumbo anytime soon. I believe that Angle, Christian, Edge, can have a good PPV caliber match against any of the CW guys.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I think the IC belt could be used as a place where Cruisers and the heavies can collide. The poblem is the audience won't buy it if the styles don't mix. What's needed is a smaller, quick guy to hold onto the IC belt to start things off. Gee, who could (RVD) do such (RVD) a thing? (RVD)

 

I believe the World Title is a big man's world, as unfortunate as that sounds. Probably better off that way, too. The past 20 years, the likes of Andre, Hogan, Undertaker, Nash, Austin, Rock, HHH, and others have left an image in history.. That plus the American "bigger is better" line of thinking means that the belt has a legacy of being given the title a legacy of big guy champions.

[Guest Whatmaniac]

I believe the World Title is a big man's world, as unfortunate as that sounds. Probably better off that way, too. The past 20 years, the likes of Andre, Hogan, Undertaker, Nash, Austin, Rock, HHH, and others have left an image in history.. That plus the American "bigger is better" line of thinking means that the belt has a legacy of being given the title a legacy of big guy champions.

But Shawn Michaels, one of the most popular WWF champions of all time, is basically a cruiserweight. Jericho and Beniot are both legitimate contenders for the WWF title. The North American marks seem perfectly willing to accept small guys at the top if it is handled correctly. The era of big men being pushed solely on their look and size is apparently over in the WWF these days. If Vince McMahon operated on the principle that "bigger is better", then Mark Henry would be a multiple time WWF Champion.

[Guest Anglesault]

Now, I hate cruisers to begin with, but I have always fekt that regulating them to a specific weight class is just detrimental to the stars themselves.

[Guest razazteca]

Jobber of the Week has a good point, if only they could get a good IC champ to hold on to the belt and challenge worthy CW contenders.......Eddie Guerrero vs Tajeri can be begining of good thing to come.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

I think that some of the talent should be interchangable like Tajiri but the rest of the guys should be fortunate there's even a crusier division to begin with. Sadly the cruisers have little to no charisma (with the exception of Knoble and amazingly Tajiri) and no charisma usually means you wont get over enough to get past the European title. It takes something really special like a wrestling machine like Chris Benoit, a flashy gymnast like RVD or a giant like Big Show to overcome a lack of charisma.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Sadly the cruisers have little to no charisma (with the exception of Knoble and amazingly Tajiri)

Helms has charisma. I mean, he got the Hurricane gimmick over.

 

I think Chavo has charisma, too, but he hasn't had a chance to show it in the WWE yet (think Chavo & "cheat to win" Eddie)

[Guest EQ]

I think they should just get rid of the European Title. It's not really over at all. The CW belt is higher up the prestige ladder IMO. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the CW guys going for the IC title either. With the way the World Title scene looks now, I don't know if the CWs can work well with those big guys... although, I enjoyed UT v. Jeff Hardy.

 

Who knows

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

But Shawn Michaels, one of the most popular WWF champions of all time, is basically a cruiserweight.

Popular? Quite a few people don't like the guy, Bret or no Bret. And IIRC, he didn't draw that much money.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Shawn was one of the least popular champs ever. He was getting Rocky Maivia heat against Sid at Survivor Series 1996.

 

And that was his GOOD title reign. His other two runs were useless and did nothing but damage his reputation.

[Guest Brian]

"well having a division based on weight class, sets up the perception that they (Cruiserweights) can only work one style, this is what prevents their advancement."

 

You mean the WWE style?

 

Because basically until they're allowed to actually wrestle and have a share of the spotlight the fans will never actually view them as potential threats. And trust me, anyone can work with someone who will bump alot and do a decent sell job. Look at Jericho, Angle, Benoit, and RVD; as well as Austin during the period he was good, Triple H during the period he was good, and Rocky. They bumped and sold. Nothing is stopping people from moving up; unless people are ignorant to that.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

The cruiserweight title is a great thing, because right now, without it, the cruiserweights wouldn't be ANYWHERE. Some of them might "deserve" a shot at a higher belt, but the WWE has only had one meaningful cruiserweight feud (Hurricane/Knoble, and it didn't even last a month) and hasn't allowed any of the cruiserweights other than Hurricane and Noble (and for a short time Tajiri) to have defined personalities.

 

The only guy who you could argue is being "held down" by the cruiserweight division is Tajiri, because last year he was working with the bigger guys and now he isn't.

[Guest Whatmaniac]

Shawn was one of the least popular champs ever. He was getting Rocky Maivia heat against Sid at Survivor Series 1996.

Least popular!? He was the best drawing champion since Hulk Hogan at the time and prior to Survivor Series, he was getting very good babyface pops.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Bret Hart far out drew Michaels as champ. Vince practically had to beg Bret to come back, because Michaels was failing so badly. That's when he signed the infamous 20 year deal.

 

Michaels was a great wrestler, and he was very over at times. But he was a horrible flop financially whenever he got the belt.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Ok, I just checked and Shawn's 1996 run drew far worse buyrates than even Diesel's run a year before.

 

Summerslam 1996 drew just a 0.58 compared to 0.9 for Summerslam 1995.

 

KOTR 1996 was down 0.05 from KOTR 1995.

 

The only PPV that Michaels headed, that was higher than the Diesel run was Survivor Series 1996 which was up 0.01 from a year before.

 

Sid is the lowest drawing champion in WWF history for his first of two reigns (from Survivor Series 1996 to Royal Rumble 1997). Shawn Michaels is number two for his first title reign. Shawn's second title reign isn't even worth a mention, and Steve Austin was the main draw during his third title reign. The fact is, that aside from Sid, no wrestler on top of the WWF in the history of the promotion, was a worse draw than Shawn Michaels. Yokozuna drew roughly three times the number of people as WWF Champ than Shawn Michaels did.