Let's talk Cruiserweights

[Deezy]

I've just seen the Monday Night War show that was focusing "The Flight Of The Cruiserweight" and boy was it fun hearing names like La Parka being shown on WWE TV, one could say that they were bringing an innovative style to North America, and they helped the notion of the smaller guys can draw money.....Or you can say their role in WCW's rise wasn't as major as most "experts" say they were.

I for one, think they were filler roles, and were there to keep the "wrestling fans" happy. Wrestling fans like wrestling, "Casual fans" like characters, like the nWo, Sting, Goldberg, Piper, Flair all the guys on top of the WCW pecking order. which was the main reason people tuned in, the fans of match quality would go nuts for cruiserweight matches, but they didn't buy their tickets for Dean Malenko facing Rey Mysterio. They got a show from them, and were satisfied with their matches, but let's face it. They would most likely mark oout more for Hogan talking shit and Sting descending from the rafters to give him a Scorpion Deathdrop.

I certainly don't think they drew the ratings numbers that WCW had in 97 or 98. But I'm not saying they didn't do their jobs well, you need a good opening matchup to a PPV, or a two segment match to fill up a Nitro. but let's not look back with rose coloured glasses and act like they were this game changer who made WCW the powerhouse that they were. They kept the wrestling fans attention, but they didn't keep the interest of the casual audience who drew the numbers that made WCW the number one company for two years.

WWF getting their product over to newer and bigger heights of popularity off characters and storylines just proved that. You can't attract a large casual audience with just good wrestling.

Disagree?

 

[SAIYANS]

They were a game changer in the sense the top WCW guys didnt have to work. Razor Ramoan worked his ass off on the road and TV in wwf, but he got to not give a fuck many nitro or thunder shows. Sting got to not work a match for a year while being on the show weekly. They filled time well so the top NWO and WCW guys didnt over extend themselves. The workload of a Goldberg or Nash or hogan to a Michaels or Austin or Rock is huge back then

 

[Deezy]

They were a game changer in the sense the top WCW guys didnt have to work. Razor Ramoan worked his ass off on the road and TV in wwf, but he got to not give a fuck many nitro or thunder shows. Sting got to not work a match for a year while being on the show weekly. They filled time well so the top NWO and WCW guys didnt over extend themselves. The workload of a Goldberg or Nash or hogan to a Michaels or Austin or Rock is huge back then

So they just replaced all the tag teams that used to "headline" the houseshows in the 80s. Makes sense paying two guys to have a match than four. I remember a story in Jerichos first book where Scott Hall told them to shorten their matches so they could get home faster, while Hall making total sense on getting on the road before dark, Jericho and Benoit would say things like "Oh he's just lazy". Which always gave me the best example between workers and wrestlers.

Workers are there to get the most by doing the least, and the wrestlers are the guys killing themselves because they think a good match is all you need.

 

[Chris]

They were a game changer in the sense the top WCW guys didnt have to work. Razor Ramoan worked his ass off on the road and TV in wwf, but he got to not give a fuck many nitro or thunder shows. Sting got to not work a match for a year while being on the show weekly. They filled time well so the top NWO and WCW guys didnt over extend themselves. The workload of a Goldberg or Nash or hogan to a Michaels or Austin or Rock is huge back then

Honestly never even thought of this, but that's a great point.

Also, who are you to doubt El Dandy?

 

[The Cork]

Guys like Nash and Hogan would of phoned it in no matter if the cruisers were there or not.

If you run the book why would you bust your ass in a five star match when you can just poke a guy and win in five seconds lol.

Most smarks would say they were underrated and misused, but they were booked farrr better than the WCW main eventers at that point.

Jericho in particular had a brilliant character. Would he of worked at the top of the WCW card though, no.

 

[Deezy]

Guys like Nash and Hogan would of phoned it in no matter if the cruisers were there or not.

If you run the book why would you bust your ass in a five star match when you can just poke a guy and win in five seconds lol.

Most smarks would say they were underrated and misused, but they were booked farrr better than the WCW main eventers at that point.

Jericho in particular had a brilliant character. Would he of worked at the top of the WCW card though, no.

Guys like Hogan, Macho, Hall and Nash paid their dues, those vanilla midgets working two weeks out of the month flying to Japan and doing two actual days of taping in ECW wasn't shit compared to a WWF houseshow schedule. I never understood why smarks never got that.

Also, I always found it hilarious when people act like those guys were held down because of politics.....Bullshit, that's what people who can't play the game say. If they were smart they would've been better at negotiating their initial contract and would've volunteered for every little thing that company asked anyone to do. Not WCWs fault, they were shit at climbing the ladder.

 

[Nevermore Arcanum]

Ah, the cruiserweights; all the in ring talent one could ask for, but no character to play (Jericho being the one exception).
Think about it. It's a t.v. show. When you watch a t.v. show, you want characters you like with action that excites you. You can't have either/or. You need both. Cruisers didn't meet that criterium. Nor did the big names. Each provided the thing that the other was missing, and it all worked. At least, as far as WCW goes.

 

[Keith]

Guys like Nash and Hogan would of phoned it in no matter if the cruisers were there or not.

If you run the book why would you bust your ass in a five star match when you can just poke a guy and win in five seconds lol.

Most smarks would say they were underrated and misused, but they were booked farrr better than the WCW main eventers at that point.

Jericho in particular had a brilliant character. Would he of worked at the top of the WCW card though, no.

Agree completley. The problem with Jericho in WCW was that they didn't know how to take him to the next level, or like others have hinted there may have been politics holding him down? It wasn't really to do with him being a Crusierweight through.

Agree with some of deezy's opening post. Thing is during its peak the Crusierweight division almost felt equal to the main event. Its easy to reflect back on it now as just filler, but don't forget that the HairVS.Mask match from Havoc 97 was possibley the most over match on the card, both guys were at the top of their games, and the booking of the feud/match was proper big match booking. When it was booked like this it didn't matter that the Cruiserweights weren't in the main events because it stood out as a unique division offering something which the likes of Hogan, Nash, Piper, etc.. didn't. You have to remember too that the WCW audience and the WWF audience were different, or many of them were. Also, how do you define good wrestling? I believe that any style can be good to watch if the guys involved along with the bookers do their jobs well. If you want to talk pure wrestling (whatever that means) then I would say that the middle of the card guys competing over the TV Title/U.S. Title were actually the best in ring in WCW at the time.