I know, pretty original idea from somebody who expresses their views about wrestling on the Internet, right? But hear me out. Until now it’s been more of a pipe dream with only two or three viable candidates on a roster filled with spray tanned ken dolls with identical haircuts and tribal patterned trunks with their last name on the back. The majority of the world’s high-flying wrestlers were deemed incredible long-shots to make it to the WWE who would never sign talent they deemed short, skinny, pale or without Hollywood good looks. Y’know, Vanilla Midgets.
But then Daniel Bryan happened. A man that is essentially the opposite of what the company has traditionally looked for was not only their pay roll, but a featured, top-level talent, capturing championship after championship, wrestling in main events, in lengthy matches, winning via submission, defeating the prototypical WWE stars they so coveted for years. Granted, a decent amount of Bryan’s position in the company may be due to his humour (Yes!/No!), but the rhyme and reason are irrelevent; a Vanilla Midget was World Heavyweight Champion and has defended championships at two consecutive Wrestlemanias. The size barrier may not be completely gone, but it’s become more flexible.
How much of this change is down to Triple H’s growing influence, we can’t truly be sure, regardless of what we all read online. But in an industry rife with gossip and media invention, it’s as close to common knowledge as there can be that Hunter was responsible for bringing in Mexican superstar Mistico, re-branding him as Sin Cara and trying everything to get him over. The Sin Cara project hasn’t been the most successful, plagued as he’s been with injuries, botched moves and lukewarm crowd reactions.
Many have pointed the finger for Cara’s lack of success at the issue of the ‘WWE Style’. The rule in the WWE, in terms of in ring action, has generally been that less is more. That every move should mean something. That their talents should avoid dangerous moves due to the frequency of their appearances. All of those ideas are sound, of course, and I’m not part of the vocal contingent that deems these things to automatically add up to being boring. I do however, feel there is some room for minor changes to how WWE talent wrestle.
After all, isn’t variety the spice of life? They desperately want their characters to be… well, characters, with their own unique flair, looks, attitudes and gimmicks. They’re after larger than life superstars that can quickly and easily be identified by audiences across the globe. What they ended up with in the last few years was the most generic WWE roster, perhaps of all time, with everybody having the same matches, cutting the same promos, with the same music and persona. But that has gradually been changing as the ‘all shapes and sizes’ mantra of old appears to be coming back into circulation.
One need look no further than NXT for the evidence. While there are still plenty of giants stomping around, there has also been a recent influx of smaller wrestlers with a high-flying style, such as Adrian Neville (5’9″ if he’s lucky), the former PAC, whose style has remained largely unchanged, still using his Corkscrew Shooting Star Press finisher. Obviously, this move alone has made him incredibly popular right away, and his name has been included in the recent list of developmental talents thought to be brought up to WWE-proper soon. El Generico (5’11”) is another anti-WWE type wrestler in terms of his look, but he’s debuted as Sami Zayn to a decent crowd reaction, and rumour has it Samuray Del Sol (5’6″) and Sami Callihan (5’10”) are soon to join them.
Meanwhile the main WWE roster currently boasts half a dozen or so cruiserweight wrestlers. Several of them have struggled to find a consistent place on the card, typically being squashed by the larger talents despite their support from audiences. Evan Bourne has flirted with a good push several times, only to be sent right back down the card. Sin Cara flip-flops constantly. Hunico has a good run that all but evaporated from under him. Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd have bounced around.
My solution? Restart the Cruiserweight Division. There were rumblings that exactly this was going to happen when the forever-in-development WWE Network finally came to fruition, with an all-cruiserweight show slated to appear. This has yet to happen, and we have no idea if it’s actually true, but several former WWE wrestlers have hinted that they were contacted to be involved, including Brian Kendrick, Paul London, Shane Helms and the recently released Trent?. If the idea is even remotely being entertained by head office, then I’m saying now is the time to re-instate the Cruiserweight Title, hold a tournament, and have at it.
Now that Raw is 3 hours every week, Smackdown has lost its sense of identity and has record lows for attendance, and we have Superstars, Main Event and Saturday Morning Slam, it seems there is more than enough time to give the division a few segments each week.
My proposed roster: Sin Cara, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Samuray Del Sol, Hunico, Yoshi Tatsu, Primo & Epico, Richie Steamboat, Xavier Woods, Mike Dalton, Sakamoto, and CJ Parker.
That’s not including the likes of Kendrick, London, Helms, Low Ki, Trent?, whoever they would consider bringing back or could lure away from TNA, or various indie talents that aren’t a million miles from the WWE look such as Alex Shelley, AR Fox, Ricochet, Rich Swann, Jigsaw, Jimmy Rave and Player Dos. Hey, Matt Cross probably wouldn’t mind another chance.
The Young Bucks and Scorpio Sky are unlikely to receive an invite based on issues not related to their wrestling ability. TJ Perkins seems like he wouldn’t be too keen on being in the WWE, but he did get a few tryouts and even televised matches a few years ago. I’m deeming Jack Evans too crazy, and ACH, Frightmare, Ophidian, Amazing Red and most other indie high-flyers to be too small.
Even without the long-shots and hypothetical proposals, I feel there is more than enough talent to maintain a division and championship. There are only 12 Divas currently on the main roster, with a few more likely incoming soon. Without adding anybody new, I count 16 cruiserweights under WWE contract, and at least half a dozen former employees they wouldn’t mind bringing back.
Give them 5-10 minutes on Raw, 20 on Smackdown, a match on most PPVs, and whatever you feel like on the other shows and let them fly. They can still wrestle a high-flying style with WWE’s suggested alterations to their move-sets and be entertaining.
It would also be a good use of Rey Mysterio’s seemingly numbered days as an active performer. Either have him propose the entire tournament and make it to the finals, or challenge the winner of said tournament on PPV to prove themselves and pass the torch. A stamp of approval from the greatest cruiserweight of all time, who proved masked men that do hurricanranas can be WWE main event talents, would mean everything.
Just a thought.