Cruise to success

[zhangmeijie 0]

The Cruiserweight division is a not exactly in tip top shape right now, that's not exactly a secret , how can it be brought back to life? Gregory Helms was great and so is Chavo, but since losing the (now abandoned) title Helms is once again doing nada and Chavo isn’t doing a whole lot either. Just hanging around Edge. Then there is the stalled push of Brian Kendrick. Sorry THE Brian Kendrick Well let's take a look at what WWE could do.

 

First of all how exactly does a smaller man, not named Rey, get a (non Cruiser) push in WWE. Well if you are a WWE road agent you will inform any cruiserweight who asks that the following:

 

You would first tell them to have good matches, but in a WWE style. Then you would tell them to perform the current angle, mic work, feud etc as best they could. Of course a cruiser getting an angle and feud is the hard part. That of course is the predictable answer but no matter how hard they try to do this Cruisers still don’t get the pushes they deserve. Look at Kendrick and London, they were thrown together because the bookers couldn’t think of anything better to do with them. Fair enough they got a long title reign made the most of it and were entertaining, just don’t expect the Kendrick push to start again Look at London’s last Cruiser tag team. Remember Kidman and London? They were thrown together too and giving the tag belts. Then for no reason they split and fought each other. Again fair enough they could have had a great feud. To a point they did, their match at No Mercy in 2004 was a classic. That was it though one match was the feud the next time we saw London he was jobbing on Velocity. Of course the winner of the No Mercy match Billy Kidman got a big push. Well almost he entered into a feud with Chavo Guerrero in late October 2004 over the cruiser title. Then they dropped the feud and crowned Funaki champ in a battle royal. That made one thing clear. WWE decided a surprise win was much more important than hard work and ability. (No offence to Funaki he is talented.)

 

The crowd of course didn’t,and don't give a damn about Funaki, indeed why should they. He went from being a whipping boy to a champ in mere weeks, then back to a whipping boy again. There was no story line reason for the win. This happened a lot in WWE’s cruiser division. (Incidentally Chavo Guerrero had a fit backstage over this and attacked the Big Show. Why because Chavo felt Show who was getting a mega push ill deserved it while he Chavo should be Cruiser champ.) Chavo was after, of course, Cruiser champ, and what has did he do after the win? Not a whole lot, He may be about to fight Edge, that would be a good thing.

 

Everybody knows, or should realise that these Cruisers can and often do have amazing matches. Well as amazing as you can be in the Five minutes or less they usually get. (If they are not called Rey or Bourne who at least get time.) Never mind that though the important question is this. Can Cruisers affect PPV buy rates and WWE numbers? Can they actually draw in WWE in other words. The best, and I would say only, answer to that is yes. Look at ECW’s lucha division (The real ECW I mean) and WCW’s version of the Cruiser division. Why did they succeed because the cruisers were booked right that’s why. Better still look at Japan, and NJPW in particular. Remember Jushin Liger? Liger was used in such a way to hide his weaknesses (assuming he even had any). He was booked against wrestlers that worked a similar style. He was damn sure never jobbed out to the heavyweights. In fact the IWGP Junior title was just as important as the heavyweight version and was often booked in the main event above the HW title. This was accepted for one reason only, the title was respected and never treated like dirt.

 

Now back to WWE can you imagine The SD world champ fighting in the mid card and the Cruiser champ, pretending for a second they still had this title, defending his crown in the main event. Of course you can’t and why would you. IF WWE put their mind to it and set aside Twelve months to book a Division like NJPW did there is no doubt it would succeed. That won’t happen though because cruisers are seldom allowed to perform to the best of their abilities in WWE. (Rey is booked as a heavyweight.) As long as WWE treats it’s cruiser division as something of an afterthought it and any future Cruiser title they might bring back will remain a joke. It tells a lot that the only Two cruisers getting a push, and a good one, right now are never booked as Cruisers, Rey and Bourne Rather Rey is a ME heavyweight wrestler, despite his size, and Bourne is just facing anybody but not being pushed as a Cruiserweight. Nothing wrong there but they should be getting involved with a Cruiser Division as well.

 

Cruisers often complain about the lack of pushes in private, and sometimes even in public online. That’s no solution though so what is?

 

 

Well it may be a bad idea considering the distinct lack of options these days but I think a stand is in order. What they should do is tell the bookers exactly what they think. A revolution might not get them anywhere but nowhere is still a step up for the likes of Yang, Funaki and yes even the wasted Chavo right now.

 

I had more to say, well sort of, but I can’t think of what right now and anyway this debate / rant / intelligent post* is getting long enough.

 

 

 

*Delete as needed