Triple H’s voice opened up the show, narrating about cruiserweights and showing highlights of famous cruiserweights of the past in WCW and WWE. He mentions it’s time for a new era of cruiserweights to step out of the shadows and enter the spotlight.
Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo open the show. Ranallo mentions that Bryan has wrestled a lot of these men and Bryan says yes, in fact Brian Kendrick was his first ever opponent in pro wrestling.
They throw it to Corey Graves who runs down the card for tonight. The graphics and presentation here look pretty slick and different than what WWE normally does.
They did a series of vignettes before each match. Gran Metalik is interviewed first. He’s here to represent his mask as well as Mexico. Alejandro Saez wants to prove that Chile has hardened warriors. To be a world luchador, you have to fight for what you want.
Seems as far as time limits go, each match has a 20 minute limit. They did a combination of mixed martial arts/boxing (giving out instructions and asking for questions before the match) and Ring of Honor (a handshake before the bout) style presentation before the match started.
Gran Metalik (Mexico) vs. Alejandro Saez (Chile)
This started out a bit rough as Saez didn’t look at all on the same level as Metalik, but it got a bit better as the match went on. Metalik did his step up springboard senton to the floor and Saez did a shooting star press to the floor. Saez went for a sky twister press but Metalik dodged, then hit what’s normally called the Dorada Screwdriver for the win.
More MMA presentation as both guys stood in the center of the ring between the referee and Metalik’s hand was raised.
Ariya Daivari is profiled. He mentioned his former WWE superstar brother, then mentioned he’ll do whatever it takes to get the win. HoHo Lun says he’ll do his best to make Hong Kong proud of him.
HoHo Lun (Hong Kong) vs. Ariya Daivari (Iran)
Daivari did not shake hands before the bell rang. Daivari came across as far more polished in the ring, but Lun was popular with the crowd and has a babyface kind of appeal that could work well for him. It needs work, though.
Daivari controlled a lot of the match. Lun was making a comeback, but Daivari countered with a roaring elbow. Daivari misses a splash that allows Lun to get the win after a superkick while Daivari was kneeling then finished him off with a bridging German suplex.
Clement Petiot is interviewed and puts over Lance Storm as his trainer. He doesn’t do flips was the gist of what he said. Alexander mentions he’s from Charlotte, North Carolina, like Ric Flair and hopes to someday be mentioned in the same breath as him.
Cedric Alexander (USA) vs. Clement Petiot (France)
Petiot tried to punk out Alexander before the bell rang. The announcers put over Petiot has a hard hitter. I sensed more a cerebral style, he worked as a heel with general WWE-based heat.
Petiot cut off Alexander’s comeback with a clothesline, but Alexander hit the lumbar check out of nowhere and got a nice looking win. Both men looked good here.
A Kota Ibushi interview is shown. WWE is a new audience for him and he hopes he can make them happy. Maluta mentions that his uncle is Afa of the Wild Samoans. There was no doubt that when he was old enough, this is what he wanted to do.
Kota Ibushi (Japan) vs. Sean Maluta (American Samoa)
Ibushi was over with this crowd. Maluta looked very good, though completely botched a flip dive to the floor that looked really scary. A lot of good back and forth action followed that. The announcers put over that Ibushi might not be fully recovered from his herniated disc injury.
Maluta hit a savate kick for a nice looking near fall. Maluta struck some nice kicks, but Ibushi came back with his own then pinned Maluta with the Last Ride powerbomb for the win. Very nice match.
Maluta raised Ibushi’s hand after the match. Judging by the brackets, Ibushi will meet Alexander in the second round.
Next week:
Tajiri takes on Damien Slater. TJ Perkins and Da Mack battle it out. Mustafa Ali battles Lince Dorado, and Akira Tozawa will face Kenneth Johnson.
Final Thoughts:
I really liked this in terms of presentation. It was something WWE normally doesn’t do, putting over styles and making everything (and everyone) feel important. The MMA vibe and trying to make this come off as a slick, athletic presentation came off really well too.
Most of the matches came off as highlighting wrestlers we’ll see in the second round, but that’s why they went for 32 participants in the first place, so this can last 10 weeks. The main event was really fun, as Maluta surprised me by just how good he was and Ibushi did his usual spots that got him over big in Full Sail.
It’s different than many other WWE shows you’ll see these days and that is what makes CWC already stand out above the rest, it’s not your usual WWE programing, and that alone makes it worth checking out.
After months of anticipation, WWE officially launches the Cruiserweight Classic Wednesday, a 32-man tournament designed to play off the success of NXT, find new talents to get into the WWE pipeline, and to provide new content for the WWE Network during the summer months.
In order to help get you familiar and/or learn more about some of those new talents, we brought together some of our talents that have expertise in covering many of the wrestlers’ home regions and promotions.
Because WWE didn’t break up the entire bracket NCAA-style (East, Southwest, etc) and because we want to give each match preview some time to breathe without doing one long mega-post, we decided to break them the bracket ourselves into A/B/C/D brackets starting counterclockwise from the top.
We first began with Bracket A, and today, we move onto Bracket B (lower left):
Harv Sihra, along with his brother Gurv, is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but both brothers will be representing their country of India.
The younger Sihra brother, Harv, followed in his brother’s footsteps and became a professional wrestler. After a short time in wrestling, they formed a tag team called the Bollywood Boyz. The duo has traveled all across Canada and have attended many training camps and seminars around the United States. Some of their highest profile matches came when they competed with TNA’s Ring Ka King promotion in India.
Earlier this year, I interviewed both Harv and Gurv for my Indyriffic podcast on MLWRadio. I see big things in the future for these two men, and it’s just a matter of time before promoters across the United States and internationally start booking them consistently.
While many of the competitors in this tournament don’t conform to what is traditionally thought of as the cruiserweight style, few do it as noticeably as Drew Gulak.
Gulak isn’t going to amaze the audience with his ability to fly around the ring, and he may not even leave his feet voluntarily. Instead, Gulak will look to wear down his opponents on the mat.
He is a throwback to the early days of wrestling. Along with wrestlers like Timothy Thatcher, Gulak is revitalizing a style of mat-based wrestling that had been written off by some audiences as boring in an industry that has become increasingly dependent on fast-paced action.
Gulak is the leader of Evolve’s Catch Point stable along with “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams, TJ Perkins, Matt Riddle, and Fred Yehi. Gulak and Williams are the current Evolve tag team champions, and Gulak defeated his partner in a qualifier to earn his way into this tournament.
He describes the group’s philosophy as foregoing flash in favor of substance. They isolate their opponents’ weaknesses and aggressively attack them, and Gulak is at his best when that aggression is apparent in all aspects of his work.
A veteran of the American independent circuit, Gulak has worked extensively for CZW, CHIKARA, and Evolve. He has also been a fairly regular feature on PWG cards.
In addition to his career inside of the ring, Gulak has been lauded for his ability to train talent. He currently works as a trainer at CHIKARA’s Wrestle Factory, and leads seminars for Gabe Sapolsky’s World Wrestling Network.
If the last few years of Zack Sabre Jr.’s career haven’t been a carefully-orchestrated plan, then it’s a remarkable series of happy accidents that have brought the 28-year-old to where he stands today.
A grounding on the British and European indies was parlayed into a lengthy run with Pro-Wrestling NOAH and all that entails, then followed by the past year of returning to Europe and expanding his time in the US.
Add in holding one of the big four titles in the UK and one of the big three indie titles in the US, and you have a man poised to take the next step into where this has surely always been leading: WWE.
Sabre Jr. began with the rump of the Hammerlock Gym in his native Kent, the former UK NWA affiliate which many years before also produced Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm, former NWA World champion Gary Steele, and Jimmy Havoc, as well as having a hand in the development of both Finn Balor and Becky Lynch.
Sabre Jr. received training in the traditional British style which he has carried through the 12 years of his career. Now that it has once again became a sought-after style, he finds himself as one of the master practitioners.
He has moved around the UK and European indie scenes, holding titles in IPW:UK, wXw, and Triple X Wrestling, where he held their main title for two and a half years, defending against Balor amongst others, and a promotion where he faced CWC commentator Daniel Bryan in a match spoken fondly of by the former WWE champion.
Then came NOAH, where he held the GHC junior heavyweight tag team titles twice (with Yoshinari Ogawa), and cemented his name as one of the foremost lighter weight contenders the whole world over.
With show-stealing performances in Pro Wrestling Guerilla (where he holds the title) and Evolve furthering his name in the US, his appearance in the CWC is surely the final step before WWE proper comes calling, and the whole world gets to see this charismatic technician with a swift, brutal side to his work beamed into their homes on a weekly basis.
Tyson Dux may be one of the competitors people are the most familiar with aside from the tournament favorites. He has been one of the more traveled independent wrestlers of the past 15 years, and he’s competed with major promotions like Ring of Honor and All Japan Pro Wrestling.
He may be most well-known for his time as a member of Team Canada at the 2006 TNA World X Cup. In the last few years, he’s been wrestling for some of the top independent promotions in North America like AIW, AAW, Smash, and CZW.
Competing out of Ontario, Canada, Dux has a tough challenge as his first round opponent is CWC favorite Zack Sabre Jr.
Any 22-year-old that has had well over 400 professional matches tends to have figured out how to work.
Noam Dar, a Scot of Israeli descent, began his professional wrestling career as a 15-year-old in 2008 for British Championship Wrestling, the Ayrshire promotion where he learned the ropes under Colin McKay and Lionheart.
That he still works for BCW today, when the demand for his services is higher than it has ever been, is a testament to the man and the men who trained him, who also produced Grado and gave Drew Galloway some of his earliest opportunities.
Within a couple of years, Dar’s career picked up and he earned some high-profile outings for Dragon Gate UK and the dying 1PW, making his first trips overseas to work for wXw where he acted as an alternate for the 2010 16 Carat Gold Tournament.
Dar’s style — a mix of mat-based technical wrestling with some high-impact classic cruiserweight moves — blends with an unaffected cool that comes off as very unrehearsed. All of that made him an attractive prospect for what would become the UK’s current big four promotions (PROGRESS, RevPro, ICW, and PCW) where he won titles and faced some of the best on the indie scene.
Dar has faced AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Chris Hero, not to mention Johnny Gargano, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher, and Sabre Jr. from this year’s CWC.
In the summer of 2014, Dar tried out for TNA’s British Bootcamp reality series, becoming one of six finalists who made it through to the US tour portion of the show. Although Mark Andrews won the show and got the TNA contract offer, Dar impressed in outings against Austin Aries and Al Snow, and was part of the promotion’s 2015 UK tour.
Despite bowing out of PROGRESS last summer, which many took as a re-orienting of his career to more Scottish-based promotions, Dar recently won the PCW heavyweight title from Sha Samuels on that company’s first iPPV and has lately become a regular with London-based RevPro once again.
The CWC is a fantastic stage for the Scot to show his wares and few should dismiss his chances of causing an upset. Fluent in Hebrew, his value for an ever-expanding international company cannot be understated, and it may not be too long before that skinny 15-year old from Ayr signs a WWE contract.
Gurv, the older Sihra brother, entered wrestling after first being trained by Michelle Starr, Scotty Mac, and Vance Nevada. He first started wrestling for BC’s Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling.
He has since taken the same road as his brother with their Bollywood Boyz team having some success all around the world. Currently, they are the Global Force Wrestling tag team champions. Known primarily as a team, they bring not only a lot of experience, but also a lot of charisma to the CWC. Both brothers are very well-rounded wrestlers.
I know these guys pretty well and besides their first year in the business, it’s hard to really think of many standout singles matches the two have had as all of their accomplishments have come as a team.
But, this tournament provides an opportunity for the Sihra brothers to differentiate themselves from each other, and even though they aren’t matched in the first round, there is sure to be some brotherly competition.
If you’re not familiar with Ariya Daivari, it’s more than likely that you are familiar with his older brother Shawn, he of the very well-known run in WWE teaming with Muhammed Hassan. Not surprisingly, he is very similar to his older brother in how he wrestles.
The younger Daivari got much of his initial training from both his brother and Arik Cannon. He’s carved a strong career out for himself being based in the Midwest, and has competed several times for Ring of Honor, including an impressive match with Roderick Strong.
Like the Bollywood Boyz, he was part of TNA’s excursion into India with the Ring Ka King promotion.
China hasn’t exactly been a hotbed of professional wrestling in the sport’s varied history. Discounting Gorilla Monsoon and the Mighty Chang, who were very much not Chinese, there has been a distinct lack of athletes from the world’s biggest population making it onto the world stage.
This can largely be explained by a lack of shows to inspire the natives, aside from visits from the top British and Australian stars in the post-colonial era entertaining British ex-pats at prices beyond the reach of the average Hong Kong citizen.
However, the emergence in the mid-2000s of Middle Kingdom Wrestling and Chinese Wrestling Entertainment changed all that, and the CWC’s HoHo Lun and Jason Lee are the first fruits from that cultural glasnost.
The CWC isn’t Lun’s first foray into international wrestling. After completing his rudimentary training at CWE’s Guangzhou school, he traveled to the UK where he enrolled at the 4-Front Wrestling academy.
During that trip, he made several appearances for 4FW and after a trip back home, he returned for more dates with 4FW, Triple-X, and other small independent promotions. One further trip in 2013 brought with it appearances for ATTACK!-Pro, Fight Club:PRO, and more. In those UK visits, he faced Mark Andrews, Tyler Bate, and Pete Dunne, amongst others.
Back home in China, Lun continues to work for CWE and Middle Kingdom. He also opened Zero-1 Hong Kong, an extension of his own Hong Kong Pro-Wrestling Federation, which led to him traveling to Japan to fight for Zero-1 proper (something he has in common with fellow CWC competitor, Jack Gallagher).
With WWE having signed their first Chinese national, 22-year old Bin Wang, to a developmental contract, and with WWE shows now being beamed live into Chinese homes, Lun is in the right place at the right time and the CWC is his shop window.
His limited experience and relative youth, plus a tough first round match against Daivari, may mean it will be a short window, but his history has already shown he’s willing to take risks for future gain. There’s no reason to think this will be any different.
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Look for our next bracket later today and our full coverage of the CWC starting Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the road to the WWE Cruiserweight Classic gets a little closer with Bracketology, a one-hour WWE Network special akin to the NCAA tournament selection show, featuring bracketing and officially putting all 32 competitors in their slots for this summer-long tournament.
The competitors are a wide array of talent from all over the world.
Some of the faces and names involved are already familiar to the WWE audience like veteran cruiserweights Brian Kendrick and Tajiri. Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa and Rich Swann have also already competed in front of the crowd at Full Sail University as members of the NXT roster.
Most of the talent in the tournament has never before competed in a WWE ring. Independent stars from the United States like Drew Gulak, T.J. Perkins and Cedric Alexander that are looking to make a good first impression to the WWE and its audience.
It also includes international stars like Kota Ibushi, Gran Metalik and Zack Sabre Jr. that are looking to further establish themselves in the United States.
With such a diverse group of both known and unknown talent, the first 16 matches could lead to some real gems.
Tonight’s bracketing show will be hosted by Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan, and with the show purportedly going for a more sports like atmosphere, it will be interesting to see what they say about the competitors.
Join us at 9 PM EST as the brackets get revealed!
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The show starts with Triple H cutting a speech at the performance center, basically a pep-talk to those competing in the tournament.
Mauro welcomes us to the show and asks Daniel how he feels being back after his retirement in February. When he heard about the Cruiserweight Classic, he felt he had to be a part of it as there are tons of people coming in from all around the world competing in one tournament. Mauro says it reminds him of the birth in MMA.
They go over the story of Alejandro Saez and how he was 25 pounds overweight before the tournament, but managed to make weight before deadline. Daniel Bryan questioned if he’ll gain that weight back before the tournament starts.
Zack Sabre. Jr profile video. He says he grew up watching guys like Chris Jericho and Dean Malenko who were well known for their technical skill. “Harry Potter isn’t the only wizard in this tournament” he notes.
WWE Senior Director of Talent Relations Canyon Ceman is interviewed, saying how he traveled around the world in search for competitors. The goal is to bring someone for everyone.
Jack Gallagher is interviewed, putting over the British style. He has to use his mind and his techniques to beat his opponents. He’ll keep it gentlemanly as long as his opponents keep it gentlemanly. He considers himself a classic English gentleman.
Harv and Gurv Sihra are profiled next. They are from Vancouver, but their parents are from India. They call themselves the Bollywood Boys, as Bollywood creates this idea of fantasy. To be in the biggest wrestling company in the world, that is a great accomplishment within itself. They both have what it takes to be here, but what it comes down to is who is the better man.
Rich Swann is profiled next. He mentions pro wrestling saved his life. His father passed away when he was 12, his mother at 16. He went down a dark path, but wrestling changed him. He never thought he’d make it, but he did. The perfect ending for him would be him winning the first ever Cruiserweight Classic.
Daniel Bryan likes Rich Swann because of his story – he’s used wrestling to be successful in life. He’s a small guy, but he has done things a lot of people haven’t.
They switch it to Corey Graves at the control center, where he goes over the left side of the bracket:
Kenneth Johnson vs. Akira Tozawa
Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Richner
Tajiri vs. Damian Slater
Alejandro Saez vs. Gran Metallik (aka Masacara Dorada)
Harv Sihra vs. Drew Gulak
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyson Dux
Noam Dar vs .Gurv Sihra
Arya Davari vs. Hoho Lun
Next up is a look at Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, and how they are a tag team but going into this tournament as opponents in the opening round.
Gargano says they clicked instantly. Gargano says he might even talk to Ciampa more than his fiance. But when it comes down to them facing off, Gargano will shake his hand and will see who comes out on top. Ciampa says he always goes in there with the intent to hurt, not injure. Says he doesn’t want to see Gargano get hurt, but he doesn’t want to lose.
TJ Perkins is profiled next. He’s the one that likes to make it look good. He started wrestling when he was 13, and lucha libre was a big influence on his style, growing up in LA.
He mentions how he was homeless for a while, mentioning it was tough and that wrestling was the only way to get out of that and it creates a lot of mental toughness. He feels like he’s representing the Philippines and he’s out to inspire others.
Mauro and Daniel are joined by Perkins, and ask him about his story. He brings up mental toughness again and Murphy’s law, and those experiences changed him as a man. Daniel Bryan mentions he was the youngest trained wrestler to ever compete in New Japan.
Perkins mentioned that this is akin to the Super J-Cup in that 10 years from now people will be looking at this tournament. He’s proud to represent the Philippines, mentioning that they don’t have a lot of heroes there so he wants to represent them.
Graves is back and goes over the right side of the bracket:
Raul Mendoza vs. Brian Kendrick
Anthony Bennett vs. Tony Nese
Kota Ibushi vs. Sean Maluta
Cedric Alexander vs. Clement Petiot
TJ Perkins vs. Da Mack
Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Mustafa Ali vs. Lince Dorado
Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee
They go over the two veterans in the tournament, Tajiri and The Brian Kendrick. Kendrick says wrestling is what he loves and what he is passionate about. When he has the world in his hands, he let it go. He mentions he was released because “he was an animal” and deserved to be released. He’s been wrestling consistently since 1999 for his moment, and if he falls short…then it’s his life that will fall short.
Kendrick joins Daniel and Mauro. Daniel brings up his first match ever was against Kendrick, and how Kendrick came out to “Genie in a Bottle” and how Bryan came out to “Born in the USA”.
Daniel asks him what he wants from this tournament. Kendrick says he wants to win because he’s never won a tournament before. In terms of the age factor, he says that is a downside, but he is smarter now and is used to this environment.
Mauro asked about both Daniel and Brian Kendrick were trained by Shawn Michaels and what that was like. Daniel Bryan talks about his passion and brings up a story about how Kendrick’s mom came in during a training session and let Shawn have it. Kendrick says he wants to beat them all when it comes down to who he wants to face the most.
Mauro brings up how Daniel Bryan has faced Kota Ibushi in the past and they go to a profile on him. Kota says he doesn’t need to represent Japan, but wants to show how good Japanese wrestlers are. He mentions his experiences with Finn Balor, Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura and he has an advantage over others in this tournament because he’s faced them all.
He will win the tournament because he loves pro wrestling the most above other wrestlers. Bryan brings up that Kota Ibushi has just come back from a herniated disc and questions if he’ll be the same.
Strong style is brought up, and Mauro asks what that is. Bryan says its an ideology about striking and hitting hard, and contrasts it to Zack Sabre Jr.’s ideology of escaping and outmaneuvering his opponents.
Triple H is brought in. Mauro says he’d never thought he’d see something like this under the WWE umbrella. Triple H mentions there are so many out there, but there was no platform for them to come into the WWE and this is the platform.
Mauro asks if this is where the future lies. Triple H mentions Daniel Bryan and how he was part of the paradigm shift and how you don’t have to be a 300 pound guy to be successful in this industry. Triple H says he doesn’t want this to be about flips and high flyers and wants to show diverse styles – mat based, striking, flyer, whatever.
Mauro asks if this is one and done and if there are futures for the athletes involved. Triple H says no, this isn’t one and done and the opportunity for the cruiserweights will be there after the tournament.
They show footage of guys training at the Performance Center and Hunter says he’s really excited. Mauro thanks Triple H for this Cruiserweight Classic and is excited to see it. Hunter mentions he wanted them both to commentate for this tournament, day one.
And that’ll do it! The first matches will air next week at this time.
