James: A new day is shining down on the JT & Seány McPower Hour today. With our Lesnar/Angle Arc and the Jeff Hardy Antichrist Arc in the rear view mirror, as well as many other bonus episodes, it’s time for us to start rolling down the line to start a brand new story arc! Let’s go back in time 5 years to the Summer of 2016, smack dab in the middle of one of the most chaotic years in recent memory. So much was changing both in the real world, and in wrestling. The Bullet Club was growing bigger than ever, NJPW had crowned their new top babyface in Kazuchika Okada, and of course loads was going on in WWE. Roman Reigns had finally been crowned the man, only to come face to face with both his Shield brothers, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. On top of that, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and the Four Horsewoman were coming up as the first recruits from NXT since its explosion in popularity. And speaking of explosive popularity, AJ Styles had finally made his way to the land of the giants, and set his sights directly for the giant of WWE himself, John Cena. With a brand new brand split in its early stages, it’s clear the WWE of the present was not the same as the WWE of the past. Smaller, independent wrestlers were getting their chance to really be stars on wrestling’s biggest stage. And to kick that transition into full gear, WWE began a very special tournament on the WWE Network….
Seán: This tournament was shaping up to be one of many grand events in wrestling during the summer of 2016! AJ Styles was set to take on John Cena in a huge match. Kenny Omega was beginning his rise to the top of the pro wrestling world. NXT was still riding the insane wave of mega popularity but more importantly, a thirty-two man tournament with a specific aim to showcase the best of a forgotten division of wrestling in the eyes of WWE was about to take place. 32 Men from around the world. One winner. The Cruiserweight Classic. It’s Season 3 of The JT and Seány Mc Power Hour baby!
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Booting Up
JT: Hello everyone and welcome!! It’s Season 3 of the Power Hour!! And I’m so excited to be doing this, because we’re looking at what was one of the most universally popular things WWE has done in a long, long time. The Cruiserweight Classic felt so outside the box compared to where WWE had been in years past, but now looking at where the company has gone, it’s pretty inline with the company’s new direction. But there will be plenty of time to discuss that as we go along, I’m just buzzing to start this off!
S: Oh same here, man. I’m absolutely giddy to be reviewing this tournament which was probably the most anticipated and positive time I was as a wrestling fan. This is a tournament I actually haven’t watched back all these years later. Ever since the near end point of last season, I’ve just been getting more and more pumped up to be reviewing what we’ll be spending our next six episodes of reviews on!
JT: Oh yeah same. I haven’t rewatched this since it aired, which is funny considering how much I liked it. But now is the perfect time, considering we’re coming up on 5 years later now. We’ve got a good amount of hindsight to be able to really have an expanded understanding of the shows, the matches and the competitors.
S: For sure and that’s what the aim of this whole season is about. It’s to get what we thought of the tournament when we were both wide eyed, oftentimes moody teenagers. This took place a few weeks after I had wrapped up my Junior Cert exams when I was 15 so this was always something I was really jazzed for. I alluded to it there but James, would you find informing the fine masses of what the whole ‘Five Years Later’ title in this arc really entails real quick?
JT: Of course! So as Seán mentioned, he would’ve been only 15 at the time of the original tournament, and I would’ve only been 16/17. At that age, you don’t really have a big depth of knowledge, even about wrestling. I certainly can say I wasn’t too familiar with most of the competitors. But now, having seen them once before and having seen them in the years since, we’ve got a lot more to say about them. With the benefit of hindsight, doing this “Five Years Later”, we can take a look at the wrestlers in this tournament. It’s all about who they were in 2016, how we felt about them before the tournament, how we felt about them afterwards, and what they’ve gone on to do since then. We’ve essentially had 32 individual, long running storylines on our hands here.
S: We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us this season, that’s for sure! And with the five year power of hindsight, we’ll be looking back in fondness and quite often in a problematic sense.
JT: But everyone, let’s stay calm, let’s not get too hyper about the CWC just yet. Today’s episode is an important one, but it is not one featuring any in ring action.
S: That’s right, this is more or less the preamble episode to indulge in all the preview content we can consume. We’re gonna lump in the Competitor Unveiling and the Weigh-In into one segment and for our main event (???) James and myself are going to talk about the 50 minute CWC Bracketology special that aired on the Network prior to this.
JT: That’s right. Today’s episode is just going to be a shorter one, where we look at who is here to try and run the gauntlet. This is supposed to be the best of the best for guys 205 Pounds and under, so I say it’s time we get to our competitors. Any objections Seán?
S: Not particularly man so without any faffing about, let’s get down on it!
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Character Selection
JT: So we’re kicking off with the Competitor Unveiling, along with a tie in to the short little weigh in video. But before we get to our competitors, we should set the stage. We gotta say where we are, and who is in charge of this unveiling, because I do say, we’ve got a real dynamic duo at the helm.
S: That we do because our commentators for the tournament are, fucking yes! Mauro Ranallo as our play-by-play commentator and, DANIEL BRYAN as our colour commentator! What a time to be alive! Actual good commentary in this time period of WWE!
JT: This is a real whopper of a pairing. Now I know opinions can be split about Mauro. I myself don’t know how to feel about him all the time, what with his tendency to shoe horn in pop culture references and how he can really scream his head off sometimes. But for the CWC? There’s no better pick. This is inherently a really “wrestling fans” tournament, in the sense that this is something that would really be up the alley for fans who really care about match quality. Believe it or not, a good amount of fans don’t care as much about how the wrestling looks and how fast it is. Completely unrelated, congratulations to The Great Khali for making the Hall of Fame!! But for the folks who really care about “work rate” and all the different styles of wrestling, the CWC is right up their alley. And for that, you’re gonna need some real wrestling historians to call the action. You gotta have commentators who are as big of nerds for this sort of thing as their fans. And Mauro is the perfect man for that.
S: Yeah this is undisputed that Mauro was the absolute right man for the job to call this whole thing, he has the freedom to really flesh out his insane knowledge of wrestling, boxing and MMA for this but as excellent as the casting choice with Mauro was. How perfect is it to have Daniel Bryan be the number two to Mauro?
JT: Absolutely perfect. Like you said, you have to have a real wrestling nerd to cover this stuff excitedly. And if you’ve ever heard Daniel talk about wrestling outside of kayfabe, be that in his book or an interview, you can tell he just is a huge nerd to his core. He knows all the names to all the moves and can tell you all about matches he saw 15 years ago because the guy did the greatest bridging German Suplex ever. That sort of thing. Bryan is no commentator, at least no professionally. I think the most he had ever done was Saturday Morning Slam at this point (Bears). But pairing him with a veteran commentator like Mauro? Good work.
S: Yeah it’s an excellent choice and I believe this is right before his appointment to be the on air GM of SmackDown too and we’re only like four months after his two year retirement as well. So seeing him here, after taking a few months off and back with a huge smile on his face is brilliant to see.
JT: Yeah he’ll discuss this later during their panel, but it’s good to see him smiling and happy after making a tough decision only a few months earlier. We should also note that this little opening ceremony is taking place in the same place the rest of the tournament will be. We’re in the friendly confines of Full Sail Arena, right next door to the WWE Performance Center.
S: Ah yes, the simpler time when Full Sail was always rabid and didn’t become the very tired Impact Zone it’d be in 2019.
JT: Yeah I’d say this is a nice sweet spot for Full Sail. It’s not quite the early NXT days level of commitment to kayfabe, when guys like Bo Dallas were enemies of the state, but it’s past that rocky 2015 period where Full Sail got all up in arms at NXT not being their exclusive plaything anymore. They’ve settled down and they’re still pretty rabid for anything but down in front of them.
S: Exactly and God I completely forgot when they got so pissy about NXT being outside of Full Sail now that you mention it. They were so toxic when NXT was building to their first TakeOver in Brooklyn.
JT: Luckily, getting thoroughly mocked by Kevin Owens about their crybaby attitude put some humility in them. They’re happy to get what they get, and oh man are they happy to be here for this. Even just for the competitor unveiling, they’re quite excited.
S: Oh for sure and they’re just really excited to see the faces they recognise and intrigued to see those they’ve never watched too.
JT: So have we got anything else to get out of the way? Or can we get to introducing our competitors?
S: I think it’s about time we get to introducing our competitors, James!
JT: Alright folks, we’re going to be going in batches here so try to keep up! The very first man to step in the ring represents Mexico. At 178lbs, inspired by Eddie Guerrero, dawning some Mexican Red & Green tights, it’s Raul Mendonza!! As McBain once said, MENDOZAAAAA!!!! Up next, we already have ourselves a heavy hitter!! Representing the United States, weighing in at 157lbs, The Brian Kendrick!! Trained by Shawn Michaels, his long time friend on commentary Daniel Bryan already declares that he wants Brian Kendrick to win the whole tournament. And you can tell from the response he got from the Full Sail crowd, there are many who feel the same way Daniel does.
S: Oh these fans are well invested in Kendrick being one of the two returning WWE guys and immediately from when he makes his way out, his story for the CWC is set up. Weird fact about Kendrick in regards to The Power Hour but he is going to be the one and only constant we’ve encountered across our three seasons.
JT: Holy shit you’re right!! His appearances may have been more fleeting in the past, but he still showed up! As part of our Angle/Lesnar arc, he made the briefest of brief appearances. He was one of the many participants in the APA Bar Room Invitational at Vengeance 2003, going as Spanky of course. Yet, that was somehow still more than what we got of him in S2, because at least he was legally on the card in 2003! For S2, Kendrick showed up at Bound For Glory 2010, appearing from a Body Bag to help EV2.0 defeat Fortune in the Lethal Lockdown!! And now, we’ve got him in a singles match!
S: Ya love to see it! Power Hour Hall of Famer, Brian Kendrick. Who’s next up on the docket, James?
JT: Up next, the sole representative from France, weighing in at 199lbs, a man who according to commentary has “no problem bending the rules” and who trained under technical wrestling connoisseur Lance Storm, it’s Clement Petiot!! After him, representing the US at 200lbs even, it’s Cedric Alexander!! The man cut a good deal of weight to make it under the 205lbs weight limit, and he looks excited to be here for the CWC. Fair to say that Cedric is another one of the more popular guys in this tournament. He’d certainly be familiar to many American fans wouldn’t he?
S: Yeah at this time, he would’ve made a good name for himself amongst these fans after his ROH run, as well as performances in PWG. He’s fresh out of ROH too and the weight he cut for this show is crazy.
JT: Yeah I don’t know how much he cut (I’m sure they’ll elaborate when he has his match) but it goes to show that he was serious about being in this. After him, weighing in at 155lbs is the trailblazer for wrestling in Hong Kong China, Hoho Lun! He founded the first ever promotion in Hong Kong, and he’s here representing them tonight. After him is a man whose name carrier pedigree! Weighing in at 180lbs, representing Iran, brother to former WWE Superstar Shawn Daivari, it’s Ariya Daivari! Following him in the ring is our first proper Luchador of the tournament, at least as far as aesthetic goes. Clad in a red and gold mask, representing Mexico, with a decade of experience to his name, it’s Gran Metalik. Here’s another guy who from the get go, looks to be positioned as a favorite to win this whole tournament.
S: And he’s just fresh off of his CMLL and New Japan runs as Mascara Dorada, the bigger version of Mascarita Dorado, or El Torito. I wasn’t too familiar with his in ring work but was familiar with his name due to him being on New Japan cards which I’d read the results of.
JT: Finally to round out this first sect of 8 guys, we’ve got the sole representative of Chile! He cut 30 pounds and just made the cut at 205 exactly, it’s Alejandro Saez! In the name of fairness and sharing the load, it’s Seán’s turn to take the next section. But if you think I’m being unfair, you’re not ready for who the next guy is.
S: Next up on the unveiling is former three time Cruiserweight Champion, Light Heavyweight Champion, US Champion, two time WWE Tag Team Champion, ECW TV Champion. The Japanese Buzzsaw himself, *Steve Corino voice* The God of the Three Way Dance, Yoshihiro Tajiri! Immediately Tajiri chants before he gets into the ring, he’s representing Japan and weighs in at 189lbs. He’s the most experienced guy in and commentary points out that Tajiri hopes to get another two years competing at the highest level. James, were you as happy to see Tajiri here as I was as a young chap?
JT: I don’t know if I could be as excited as you were, because you’re probably the biggest Tajiri fan I know. But I was very excited to see him though. Like you said, he’s the most experienced of the whole field, both just as an in-ring competitor and as a WWE superstar. After all, he’s the only former Cruiserweight Champion entered into this tournament. He’s a 3 time Champion, all thanks to his swift kicks and green mist!
S: Here’s hoping that can bring him to the end goal of being the CWC Champion.
Out next, representing Australia is Damian Slater! Weighed in at 193lbs and considers himself the eternal underdog of the CWC. Representing the Philippines is TJ Perkins, who weighed in at 167lbs. He started training as a teenager and hopes to be a ‘role model’ for the next generation. Sure has done a good job of that…
JT: Folks, we gotta bring it up. In the wake of the Speaking Out movement, as well as just a litany of things that have happened in the years between these shows and our blog here, some of these guys have come out on the other side looking worse than before. Some worse than others, but we will discuss it. More in depth of course when it’s their turn to wrestle, but just know that it’s coming. There’s a reason certain guys aren’t on our Season’s poster after all.
S: Yeah for sure but now ain’t the time to be shedding light on this.
Next up, representing Pakistan is Mustafa Ali! At this stage he is a relative unknown to the majority of fans and not the familiar face we’d come to know today. He weighed in at 182lbs. Commentary notes that he’s a former Policeman and also has attributes of being highly athletic and supremely confident. Out next is one of the youngest competitors and certainly one of the lightest wrestlers is the USA representative, Anthony Bennett! With the Kid ‘n Play hairstyle and two pairs of sunglasses on him, he weighed in at 147lbs and hopes to turn this tournament into a house party. Out next, representing Puerto Rico is Lince Dorado! The Golden Lynx who weighed in at 168lbs. He always lands on his feet and gets a good reception from the fans. Representing Japan is Dragon Gate mainstay Akira Tozawa! My boy! He weighed in at 156lbs, is a graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo and is one of three Japanese representatives. James, how familiar would you have been with Tozawa at this time?
JT: You know I think I may have seen a few gifs of Tozawa and I probably would’ve seen his name mentioned a few times, but I hadn’t seen a single Tozawa match before this tournament.
S: I’d seen a few of his matches in PWG and that was enough to get me hyped about him. There was always something about him which excited me as an impressionable teenager. He was actually one of the guys I was most excited for.
Our sixteenth entrant, meeting at the halfway point of the field, represents the USA. The Psycho Killer, Tommaso Ciampa! Weighed in at 195lbs and got big cheers from the crowd due his role in NXT with tag partner, Johnny Gargano but they haven’t gotten their team name just yet.
JT: Yeah we’ll get into it more as we go along, but he’s a pretty familiar face for Full Sail at this point, he’s been in NXT for nearly a year by this point. Speaking of familiar NXT faces, we’ve got Rich Swann!! Having just started his NXT run earlier in the year, he’s here tonight representing the US and weighing in at 165 lbs. Of everyone in the tournament, he’s the only one training at the performance center. Since I won’t remember to do this next time, want to do a mini trivia round right now? Do you have any guesses at who Rich Swann faced in his only 2 NXT matches to his point?
S: Oh man, I sure do remember one of them. One of them was against Bazza Corbin, right?
JT: Correct! His debut match was against Baron Corbin, the other was against Finn Balor. So up next is the other half of the Hong Kong dynamic duo. Weighing 154lbs, inspired by Bruce Lee and his Martial Arts style, it’s Jason Lee!! After him, is the first Israeli born star to ever wrestle in WWE, representing his family’s Scottish side, at 178lbs, WCPW star Noam Dar!! I’m sure this would’ve been someone you were familiar with, yes?
S: Yeah, Dar was someone I was very familiar with at this time after his work on the UK indies for RevPro, Progress, ICW and all that.
JT: After him was the older brother of the brother tandem from India!! At 159lbs, Bollywood Boy representative Gurv Sihra!! Then, you have an extraordinary gentleman!! As Mauro says, every woman loves a sharp dressed man, it’s the 167 pound English representative, Jack Gallagher!! Were you familiar with this UK Indy Stalwart?
S: Gallagher was someone I was also familiar with but not as familiar with him as I was with Dar, from what I had seen of him at this point, I liked but what I’ve heard about him in the last year… Yeesh.
JT: …..yeah we’ll have to get to that. Let’s not make this episode too much of a bummer, especially since he doesn’t have a whole lot of levity to soften the blow. Let’s instead move on to the only representative from Italy! At 203lbs, we’ve got a trainee of Das Wunderkind Alex Wright, the most powerful man in the tournament, Fabian Aichner!! And since we talked about Ciampa earlier, let’s get to his tag partner!! Also representing the US, at 170, inspired by HBK, Y2J and Johnny Saint, it’s Johnny Gargano!! Johnny Wrestling from NXT!!
S: GAHHHHHH! IT’S MY FAVOURITE BOY! Don’t give a shite what people say about him, *Booker T voice* that’s my wee homie! Yeah honestly, my favourite wrestler from the last five or six years not gonna lie man. I was so happy to see him show up in NXT in 2015 and seeing him at the CWC when I was really getting behind DIY as a team was really cool for me. Can’t say enough good things about him.
JT: Well we can get into the many nuisances of Johnny Wrestling as we go on, but as of Summer 2016, he was quite the fan favorite. And to round out this section, we’ve got another American, at 156, trained by SmackDown’s #1 announcer and former Cruiserweight Champion Sho Funaki!! It’s Kenneth Johnson!!
S: This guy has a really inspiring story too, he managed to benefit from speech therapy so greatly that he did a full like ten minute interview without stuttering. This was a guy who I really got behind.
JT: Can’t wait to talk about him and many of the other inspirational stories we have going into this tournament. Now we’re 2/3s of the way done with the field, Seán take us home!
S: *Pushes up glasses* I think you’ll find that we’re actually 3/4’s of the way through. Gee, hope somebody got fired for that blunder. Who’s feeding James these cue cards? Was it you Ruby?
JT: D’Oh!! Guess I shouldn’t be wearing Henry Kissinger’s glasses. But you’re right, we’re actually 3/4s of the way done, it’s time for the final 8!!
S: Up next in our field of 32 is a twenty year veteran and shockingly enough, our only Canadian representative (not counting The Bollywood Boyz). 20 year veteran, “Textbook” Tyson Dux. Who weighed in at a svelte 193lbs. You know who else weighed in at 193lbs? Our next competitor, hailing from Philly, representing Catch Point and the USA is none other than Drew Gulak! James! It’s your boy!
JT: He is now my boy!! But was he still my boy back in 2016? Well, we’ll just have to find out later. But know that in 2021, I’m excited for anything Drew Gulak is involved with!!
S: I’m gonna agree with you there, partner.
Who’s next? It’s the younger brother of Gurv Sihra, also representing India. It’s Harv Sihra! He’s an awfully handsome wee devil if I must say. He weighed in at 144lbs, making him the lightest competitor in this whole tournament. Out next is the guy who was considered the top two of the favourites to win the whole thing. He is Submission Mast- Sorry, we’re gonna have to wait another 20 months for that awesomeness to happen but for now, representing England. The Technical Wizard and as of this event, the current PWG Champion! Zack Sabre Jr! He weighed in at a lean and mean 181lbs. James, I think it’s safe to say that you and I were very familiar with ZSJ coming into this tournament, right?
JT: I think it’s fair to say that coming in, he was my most anticipated competitor. I won’t go into it too much right now, but I had seen a good bit of ZSJ heading into this, and I was mighty interested to see how he’d fare in WWE.
S: I was definitely in the same boat as you man, I think he was most people’s favourite heading into this tournament if you ask me.
Out next, we’re down to our last four here. Representing Germany and wXw, it’s the Urban German himself, Da Mack! He weighed in at 160lbs and was trained by Cesaro. Out next, another representative of the old US, ‘The Premier Athlete’ Tony Nese! Who weighed in at a muscly 196lbs and feels that he deserved to be in this position a long time ago. Will he deliver on that? Guess we’ll just have to find out. Our penultimate competitor, representing his homeland of American Samoa, Sean Maluta! The Samoan Dragon weighed in at 191lbs, is a nephew of Wild Samoan Afa and a relative of Roman Reigns and The Usos!
The 32nd and final entrant into this massive tournament, the most highly anticipated entrant of the whole field. A man who made my jaw drop when I saw him in the crowd at TakeOver in Dallas. He is a former three time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, a former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, he is one of DDT’s most decorated wrestlers, a former New Japan Cup winner and now looks to win the Cruiserweight Classic! Weighing in at 189lbs! Representing Japan! “The Golden Star” Kota Ibushi! Bryan points out that he has chills running down his spine and puts over the kicking prowess of Ibushi.
James, it’s safe to say that this was easily the most anticipated entry into this tournament, right?
JT: For sure. He’ll go into his backstory more when his match comes, because it really adds to him being here, but even without that, he had a long and storied backlog of great matches, against some of NXT’s best too!!
S: Oh most definitely. He’s had classic matches with the likes of Balor, Nakamura, Sami Zayn and others! With that being said, what’s your final thoughts on the lineup for this tournament?
JT: I think we’ve got ourselves a pretty damn good lineup. Going over it the second time, there’s a lot more guys I recognize/remember now. Though there’s still a few oddballs in the bunch, and a few that I have a lower opinion of now. Regardless, I think this presentation of everyone is a great thing. Even when I didn’t know who was who, it felt very sports like to have this happening. Reminds me of the NFL Combine, where you’ve got all these potential star NFL players showing their skills, to the teams. Instead, you’ve got a little sneak peek at all 32 guys, a bit of their gear, and a little insight into their personality and wrestling styles.
S: Absolutely and what makes this such a great presentation is the commentary that Mauro and Bryan provide. Their brand of commentary surrounding all these different guys where they preview them and give you a small insight into who they are is just the right amount of informative you need and so refreshing to see on a WWE product.
JT: Yeah this will become a prevailing theme this arc, but the whole presentation of this tournament is just *chef’s kiss*. It’s so perfect, especially for a first of its kind tournament.
S: It really is and it’s so rare that we get to say that about a WWE presentation in this era. It says a lot about what’s to come when just the competitor unveiling is already a perfect presentation. Gets you really hyped for the actual meat and veg of the CWC.
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Bracket Racket
JT: Alright, so after finishing up with our competitor introductions, we’ll now head on over to the Performance Center where Mauro & Bryan are sitting at a desk, discussing the CWC in what has been dubbed the “Bracketology Special”. Now this sort of thing is fairly common here in the States, considering we have the 64 team College Basketball tournament “March Madness” every year. Programs like this are supposed to just break down games to watch out for, key players, and establish who are the favorites. Do y’all have anything like that over on your island?
S: Yeah these are definitely a thing over in Ireland and more so the UK. Usually for like the Champions League, Premier League or World Cup, they have what are called ‘Magazine Shows’. More or less they preview all the games and interview several talking heads such as players and managers. It may be a thing with Gaelic Football and Hurling too but I’d have to ask my dad about that one because I wouldn’t be as much of a fan as the rest of my family.
JT: Now I know that saying a wrestling show has a “real sports feel” has become a real buzz phrase that doesn’t mean much of anything in the year 2021. But I have to say once again, it feels very much like a real sport to have this sort of presentation. The two of our commentators sitting at the big desk, talking about the bracket and the guys in it, it gives me real Sportscenter vibes.
S: That’s what I was thinking too, they definitely were going for a real ESPN or Sky Sports feel off of this one. Definitely liked the presentation.
JT: Of course before we get to that, we open up with Triple H delivering a speech at the PC to all the CWC competitors, telling them that they’re all here for a reason. They’ll be part of a big opportunity to make something they can all be proud of. We also have Corey Graves informing us that he’s in the CWC Control Center, and he’ll be breaking down the bracket later in the show. That’s when we cut to Mauro & Daniel talking at the desk. And to start off this very, heartfelt tournament, we get a very earnest speech from Dan Bry about being here for this tournament.
S: Yeah this was a very nice little speech from Bryan here. He says that it was initially hard to be around wrestling since his retirement due to his love of it but when he heard the idea that Cruiserweight Classic was being planned, he knew he had to be part of it. Nice stuff from Bryan here. Also a great point from Mauro saying that the mixture of many styles in this tournament is similar to the birth of MMA where the intrigue of which is the best style of Cruiserweight is within this tournament.
JT: Yeah that’s something about Mauro that’ll help for this tournament. Though he’s obviously a huge wrestling fan, he’s obviously covered other sports too, and that experience will really help make this tournament feel like a more authentic event rather than a goofy, silly WWE event.
S: Absolutely, the fact Mauro is as well versed in other sports as a play-by-play commentator greatly helps the tournament and adds that uniqueness to the CWC
JT: So as was plain to see from the competitor introductions, we’ve got ourselves a really diverse field of competitors, and we’re not just talking about backgrounds. They note we’ve got Lucha Libre, Strong Style, Catch Wrestling, and some hybrids of all 3 in this tournament. On top of that, there’s a real mix of experience in the CWC. You’ve got guys who have performed in WWE before, Tajiri even performed at WrestleMania! Then you’ve got Ibushi, who has performed inside the Tokyo Dome! Then you have some guys who likely have never performed in front of more than 200 people. So it’ll be a real interesting test to see who has got what it takes to stand up the bright lights and succeed.
S: I did like how they pointed out that Full Sail, which has an attendance of about 750-900 people, would likely be the biggest audience that a lot of the wrestlers in the tournament will wrestle in front of too.
JT: It’s not quite throwing them to the wolves of 30,000 people at WrestleMania, but it’s a big crowd with a big spotlight, that’s for sure. After that discussion, we get a discussion about “What is a Cruiserweight” and as someone who had just missed out on the Cruiserweight Division, I thought this discussion was really valuable. Daniel reiterates that “Cruiserweight Wrestling” isn’t about being a certain type of wrestler, it’s just about that weight limit. You can high fly, you can work on the mat, as long as you’re 205 and under. Oh and on the topic, why 205?
S: Good that you ask that, James because we get an explanation for that! The reason for the weight limit of 205 and under is due to the fact that the old weight limit of 225lbs for Cruiserweights is now the norm for the average wrestler so the 205 weight limit is now in place and encourages those to trim down and make weight for the tournament.
JT: After all, one of the guys doing commentary most likely fits in that old “Cruiserweight” weight limit, and he’s proven he’s a main event caliber wrestler. All 205 represents is that wrestling has changed a lot in the past 20 years, when the original “Cruiserweight” weight limit was set up.
S: While we’re on about the old 225 pound weight limit, am I the only one who will always find that weight limit a bit ridiculous?
JT: I think in wrestling terms it makes a bit of sense, considering that used to mean you were smaller back in the day. But in a general sense, yeah that’s crazy. Imagine looking at someone who was like 6’0 220 and saying “Wow they’re small aren’t they?”.
S: It’s mental to think about that today but even when I was a kid, I never thought that was a particularly small guy at all but that was the general mindset of those times, I suppose.
JT: Let be real, I’m sure that weight limit was established because smaller guys wanted to show off how good they were and bigger dudes like Hogan said “No way am I doing that Lucha Mucha Smucha crap. I’m gonna grab my headlock and sit in it for 5 minutes”.
S: Probably the case to be honest, he was too concerned with wanting to stink it up Roddy Piper in long, drawn-out main events.
JT: Point is the business has changed a lot, a lot of it has come only very recently. Amidst this discussion about weight, Daniel brings up Alejandro Saez. As someone who dropped 30lbs to make the 205lb weight limit, how will he fair? Will he be depleted and tired from just scraping by and doing all that work to just make it? Or will he actually have an advantage, as he can now get his weight back up in the time between the weigh in and his first match? We’ll just have to see. And from Saez we go to Sabre Jr with our first performer spotlight. We’ll see these before every match, highlighting the guys and their skills, but as a perennial favorite, Zack Sabre Jr needs his introduction now. So Seán, why don’t you just brief us on what he says.
S: It starts off with the general introduction. His name, where he’s from, how long he’s been wrestling for, you all know the drill. He’s all humble saying he’s proud to be in the tournament and representing Britain. He recalls being mesmerised by the likes of Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho and admiring their technical skills. He talks about his world travels and wrestling in many different countries set to footage from Evolve against the likes of Ospreay and Chris Hero. He mentions that he’s spent the last four years training and living in Japan, states his style is a game of one-upmanship, tactical, he’s got a few tricks (very modest) up his sleeve and *GASPS* THIS IS THE PROMO! HE SAYS THAT, HARRY POTTER IS NOT THE ONLY WIZARD FROM GREAT BRITAIN. HE DID THE DEAL!
JT: Not to spill too much about the “where are they now” bit we’ll do if/when Zack is eliminated, but you gotta wonder if he felt compelled to add that considering it’s WWE. Like having seen what he’s done before and after this promo, I kinda get the feeling he was not all that comfortable in the WWE environment.
S: I always thought that because he didn’t just improve on his mic skills out of nowhere. This was definitely a WWE fed buzz line that they asked him to shoehorn in.
JT: Yeah after being so excited to see him in this tournament, he hits a really odd first note in the company. Not a great impression to people who have never seen you before. Still, they make sure to put him over and point out that he’s one to watch for this tournament. Next, we’ve got ourselves a special guest on the bracketology special! A man, who I haven’t seen before or since!
S: Was this auld Mr. Ceman?
JT: That’s right, Mr. Canyon Cemen, Executive Vice President of Talent Development (not to be confused with Exec VP of Talent Relations, aka Johnny “Ace” Laurinaitis, aka Mr Daniel Bryan’s step dad-in law). And before we talk about what he said, let’s just acknowledge the elephant in the room. What a fucking name. Like, that’s his real name. It’s not a wrestling stage performance, that’s just this actual name. Love it.
S: Oh how could we go a full minute without mentioning this? This name just ranks right up there with Dick Butkus and Gionna Daddio.
JT: Wrestling has a funny way of working out. Like the way Terry Funk’s long time rival was Sabu, whose real name is Terry Brunk. Having a funny name in general is a good meme, but it’s made all the better in wrestling, where most of the names are already funny.
S: Shoutout to jobbers, Walter Slow and Ken Raper.
JT: So jokes aside, they’ve got a head honcho on here to talk about the scouting process. He said that WWE have spent the last 4 years putting this together, with 4 domestic tryouts and 4 international ones every year since he came onboard. He says William Regal has been very involved in this process, as everyone in WWE is coming to understand that the mold for the WWE wrestler has evolved. He’s hoping this’ll be a chance for guys who have wrestled just out of passion to have a chance to perform for WWE when they might have never had a chance to before. It was all about two things: dynamic and diversity. They wanted guys who represented the different styles across the world, who stood out. And all I can say to that is fair enough. Regal is a ringer to have on board and they clearly got a great talent pool on board.
S: Yeah and with the field that we have for this tournament, there’s certainly a great diversity in this tournament. Like I love how they went out of their way in terms of scouting to snag wrestlers from Hong Kong, Chile, Italy and France for this tournament. It gives fans such variety and added intrigue. As well as making fans curious as to what is the wrestling scene in Chile even like?
JT: Yeah, like I think a very interesting dynamic in that regard is Hoho Lun & Jason Lee. Lun is a pioneer of wrestling in Hong Kong, so it’s interesting to think of their dynamic for a moment. Is seeing Lun in WWE like seeing say, Power Uti in WWE for the fans in Hong Kong? Is he thought of as like a real top guy, with Lee being his protege? Maybe it’s a rivalry where Lee feels like he should get the credit Hoho gets! Maybe there isn’t that sort of top guy and it’s more of a scene just trying to form from the ground up? Hell, maybe they don’t even know each other at all. It’s just fun to consider that this sort of stuff is in all likelihood, happening all over the globe.
S: Yeah like it’s so fucking cool seeing different wrestlers from around. Ho Ho Lun and Saez were two of the wrestlers I was really intrigued to see, mainly because I was unaware that wrestling in Hong Kong and Chile was even a thing. I only knew Chile for football purposes.
JT: Yeah at the same time, there are millions of people living there, with their own history and their own culture and their own characters as reactions to their culture and history. Legit I feel like a really interesting documentary series someone could make would be to go to a “smaller” country like Chile or Hong Kong or even The Philippines and just spend time living there and studying their wrestling fandom.
S: I’m really surprised a documentary series with the premise of what you just pitched hasn’t happened yet. Like you’d think that’s a series WWE would’ve done for the Network in 2016 or 2017.
JT: Someone with better resources than me, do that now before I have the means to do it!!
S: Power Hour Studios boutta cover this shit when I get my degree and am vaccinated.
JT: Anyways, after highlighting one star of the English Independent scene, we get a close up on another! It’s Jack Gallagher! From Manchester, England, he’s very gentlemanly, as you can tell from the classical music in the background of his promo. He says every type of wrestling has its place, but he thinks his is the best. It’s “Incredibly scientific, mostly submission based”. He says wrestling Human chess, he has to use his mind and technique to win, and he’ll keep it gentlemanly as long as the other guy does. Wants a lordship or a knightship out of this, because he’s a classic English gentleman. Don’t let appearances deceive you, he could sneak through the tournament, as Daniel touts him as a favorite.
S: I thought what he said here was very fitting for his character. The music was right, the promo content itself was actually good and the duo of Mauro and Bryan did a great job of putting him over. The style he wrestles is extremely technical so it would be tough for opponents to out wrestle him.
JT: I think he also is good at something a lot of gimmicky characters were good at, which is matching their diction with their character. He’s a sort of slow speaker, but he says everything clearly and pretty succinctly. I just thought that was worth noting, compared to ZSJ who sounded again, kind of out of his element.
S: Yeah with ZSJ, it felt like he wasn’t being himself like he is in NJPW. More or less a loud mouth, lippy Englishman.
JT: We’ll have to see which of these two goes further in this tournament, and what would happen if they face off. Alright from England we head off to India, for the only tag team in the tournament, the duo of brothers, the Bollywood Boys!!
S: It’s my friend, Liam’s boys! Look at these two friendly, fine strapping blokes.
JT: Gurv & Harv Sihra are here and prepared to give out their famous “Butter Chicken Beatdowns” on the competition. They were inspired to embrace their heritage by Eddie Guerrero, and not wanting to do something not so stereotypical/ethnic, they chose Bollywood, thus their team name was born. Just quickly, what do you think about what they said here?
S: They have a very good knowledge of Bollywood, I’ll say. With their promos they delivered, I do oddly wanna see a Bollywood movie with these two lads in it if you ask me.
JT: Yeah agreed, they’re two fun guys. I also like the idea that they chose to embrace this, Y’know? They saw how Eddie leaned into his culture and gave Hispanic fans a hero to believe in, so they took an element of their culture that’s underrepresented abroad and made it their thing. As they said, Bollywood sells fantasy to the people of India, so they’re going to be like those fantasy heroes of the silver screen, in the ring! They had been watching wrestling as a kid, and they’ve got this touching story of how their dad had nothing but did everything for them, so that they could have good fun lives. We get some pictures of them as kids with their old wrestling merchandise, and we hear both brothers say that they’re the better brother. They say they both have what it takes to be here, it’ll just come down to who is the better man. What does Daniel say to this? Well he calls them underdogs, due to their relative lack of experience, but he says they have each other. Getting through a tournament like this can be tough, but they have each other to lean on.
S: Yeah they have a really good backstory with this promo package here. I do like how their gimmick does focus on Bollywood, which is such a huge staple of Indian culture but is shockingly underrepresented in wrestling because all we’ve gotten is the scary Indian man who is royalty and of a higher class so this is a nice change.
JT: Yeah it’s nice to see them be the heroes, especially as the underdog types. Can they lead all 1 billion people of India to a victory? We’ll find out. And speaking of underdog stories, we’ve got a video package focused on Rich Swann, who had one of the toughest roads to the CWC and success in wrestling in general.
S: Rich Swann! The fun-loving, dancing high flyer from Baltimore. Likes to dance and fool around to throw off his opponents and use his high energy offence to his advantage. He says he’s overcome adversity due to him being 5’6 and 160lbs. As well as saying that pro wrestling saved his life due to the tragic losses of both of his parents. His father was murdered when he was 12 and his mother passed away when he was 16. The losses of his parents lead him down a dark road until he started training to be a wrestler, making it despite feeling he shouldn’t have. Set to a show reel of him being a really good wrestler, he closes off this package by saying that the perfect ending for him if it were a movie would be him being the CWC Winner. Couldn’t agree more with him to be honest and man, what a story he has. Really sad, isn’t it?
JT: Yeah, he was just an inner city kid who lost both his parents at a young age and couldn’t help but fall down the wrong path. The fact that wrestling was able to change his direction is really an inspiring story, as he said, it saved his life. The fact he even got to make wrestling his career let alone get to WWE is truly uplifting.
S: For real, like he is an especially small guy too. Even for this tournament he must be one of the smallest guys in there. Easily the best and most uplifting story going into this for sure.
JT: And with that, we’re off to Corey Graves, who is going to run through the left side of the bracket!!
S: And James! What matches are highlighted on the left side of le bracket?
JT: Funny enough, they covered every match but two. I don’t know how you’re supposed to feel if you’re those 4 guys. Anyways, they start in the top corner with Kenneth Johnson vs Akira Tozawa, saying that Tozawa has faced off against the likes of Sami Zayn, Austin Aries & Cesaro. He should be a favorite to win this whole tournament. Next he highlights Jack Gallagher vs Fabian Aichner, saying that despite Gallagher’s look and presence, he should not be taken lightly. Then is Tajiri vs Damian Slater, where they position it as a returning veteran going for one last shot against the powerful Australian who has traveled farther than anyone else to be in the CWC. After that is the match between the standout Gran Metalik and Alejandro Saez, who has shown his commitment by dropping 30lbs to fight in the tournament. After that is a battle between two submission specialists, Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyson Dux. ZSJ is the Wizard, the best technical wrestler in the tournament, but Corey notes that “Textbook” Tyson Dux, is very impressive, Corey’s known him for a long time and knows that he has what it takes to win. Finally, they note Noam Dar vs Gurv Shira, where Dar looks to represent his Scottish heritage proudly. Anything you noted about this section and how they presented the matches?
S: Not particularly but off the top of my head, the fact they give these brief twenty to thirty seconds of shine on each of these matches helps make it feel like a proper tournament. I think on this side of the bracket, the matches I was most hyped for were Metalik vs Saez and Tozawa vs Kenneth Johnson. What about you? What match or matches caught your eye the most from the left side?
JT: The only things I really thought during this bit was that some matches really only highlighted one of the guys, but maybe that’s only something you think of in hindsight. Personally I think the ones I was most excited for were probably ZSJ vs Tyson Dux because I was already familiar with ZSJ, I wanted to see Tajiri vs Slater for a chance of seeing some Green Mist, and I think I was also excited to see Gallagher vs Aichner. I wasn’t familiar with either guy, but Gallagher’s gimmick was presented pretty well, and I got the feel that Aichner was just the biggest guy in the tournament. Not weight wise, but I think he struck me as the most traditional heavyweight type guy. I love me a good mini-hoss, the power move user among all the smaller wrestlers.
S: God I completely forgot to mention Aichner. He was presented as almost a prototype version to a Buddy Murphy on 205 Live, the jacked Cruiserweight who’s a monster among the rest of the division and the intrigue of him was also there because I had no idea what to expect from Aichner.
JT: Alright so as we come back from the control center, we get another video package, this time highlighting the two wrestlers Full Sail was probably most familiar with. We get a video starring Ciampa & Gargano. They are Tag partners on NXT at the moment, which is interesting for Johnny, as he says he has been a singles guy his whole career, and this was the first time he’s been a team. They’ve just clicked, they’ve grown to depend on each other. As good of friends as you can get. What happens when they face off? They’ll just see who comes on top, because sometimes you fight family harder than anyone else. Ciampa doesn’t want to see Johnny get hurt, but he doesn’t want to lose. Do they have what it takes to go against each other hard? We’ll have to see, because they’re facing off in the first round!!
S: I fucking loved this video package. They got across that they’re usually singles guys but found that bond and chemistry to become a tag team, John Boy mentioned that Ciampa is gonna be his best man at his wedding. They put over that even for a match with two friends involved, this is as serious as it gets. They both desperately wanna win but neither wants to lose. Loved the line from Ciampa too where he says he doesn’t want to see Johnny get hurt, almost implying that he has the striking advantage. Brilliant stuff.
JT: So after we get those two lovable scamps, those two best friends for ever and ever and ever, we move on to the sole representative of the Philippines. It’s TJ Perkins, telling his story. TJ says that he makes wrestling look easy, which makes sense since at 31 he already had 18 years experience. He’s inspired by Lucha Libre and pushed for by a drive to succeed. He talks about how he lost it all at an early age and was actually homeless for a period of his life. He says wrestling was his only way out of that hole, and though it was a tough time in his life, it was life’s way of telling him to grow up. It’s given him mental toughness, and if he can do what he’s doing, he can do anything. He vows to win the tournament as a culmination of all he’s worked towards.
S: Youngest gaijin wrestler at this time to have wrestled at the Tokyo Dome too, I believe. I mean he has an inspiring story, homelessness is a serious issue in today’s society. Surely this guy is a great advocate for all of social justice, right?
JT: ……Well would you look at that! He’s actually there in the studio to be interviewed by Mauro & Daniel!! After all, Bryan even knew him before the tournament? Ain’t that just a peach?
S: Yeah from what I recall from Bryan’s book, which is a great read by the way. Bryan recalled that he got to know TJ from when he was staying at the old New Japan LA Dojo in the early 2000’s and how they both used to actually live there and tour together when Bryan was being billed as American Dragon and TJ was only a young nipper at the age of 16, which is fucking mental.
JT: Yeah that really is. And as he chats his Bryan he again reiterates the importance of mental toughness, and asserts that he will win. He is real confident in himself, despite this being the biggest stage he’s ever performed on. He says he wants to be more than just a footnote, and he wants to make something that people will look at in 10 years like they do the Super J Cups of the past. It’s only been 5 years, but I’d say it’s got that reverence.
S: Yeah most certainly, I think what he said here was actually pretty decent. He’s never really been the best talker, he’s got more of a body language type charisma and saying this tournament is gonna be up there with the likes of the 1994 Super J Cup is giving the CWC very high praise before it even begins.
JT: Yeah they really set the bar high but from their presentation to this point, it doesn’t feel like a WWE exaggeration. It feels like they’re genuinely striving for that. So as Daniel closes this bit with a “How can you not root for this guy”, we head back to Corey Graves to cover the right side of the bracket!!
S: The right side! What’s going on over on that end, James?
JT: So the right side we’ve got: Raul Mendoza vs Brian Kendrick, High Flyer against the Veteran on his last run. Then we’ve got Kota Ibushi vs Sean Maluta, with all the focus going to the tournament favorite, Kota Ibushi. Next you’ve got the guy who you just gotta root for TJ Perkins, against the German King of Pop, Da Mack. In a match Graves hopes both guys lose, we’ve got Johnny Gargano against Tommaso Ciampa, NXT’s Hottest Tag Team facing each other one on one. Finally is Rich Swann vs Jason Lee. Swann has had to overcome a lot just to get here, but Lee is carrying the weight of Hong Kong wrestling on his shoulders. Another quite diverse set of matchups!!
S: Yeah as a young nipper of fifteen, there were a lot of matches on this side I was fascinated by. The trend of the matches for me was me getting to see wrestlers I’m familiar with against fresh faces who I had no idea what to expect like Kendrick vs Mendozaaaaaaaa, Swann vs Jason Lee and Perkins vs Da Mack. The match that clearly stands out above all others in the entirety of the first round is definitely Gargano vs Ciampa, five years ago and today, it’s the match that is the standout of the first round.
JT: Yeah I’ve gotta agree that Gargano/Ciampa was in my opinion, easily the biggest match of the whole first round. It’s two established talents for the NXT audience, and unlike other matches with a more established wrestler against a more obscure guy. Other matches I was interested in on this side included ones they didn’t actually bring up, like seeing Cedric Alexander in action against Clement Petiot because I had seen him before, and Lince Dorado vs Mustafa Ali because Lince is a luchador and I think luchadores are cool.
S: Agreed, Lince vs Mustafa was actually another match I was really hyped for because I had heard very good things about the both of them.
JT: So we’re coming down to the end of things now, we’ve got about 2 more spotlight sections left. First is a double package, highlighting the two returning ex-WWE talent, Tajiri & Brian Kendrick!! Care to take this one?
S: With pleasure, sir. The package is narrated by Corey Graves, who opens up that the Cruiserweight Classic is a platform for new faces to shine but is also the stage for returning faces to have one more shot at glory, those faces being Brian Kendrick and Tajiri! He points out that Tajiri is a former three time Cruiserweight Champion, is back after a ten year hiatus to enter the CWC and is looking to add one more accolade to his twenty year career. Also returning is Brian Kendrick, looking for his last shot at redemption. The 37 year old is here simply because of his experience and his love for wrestling. He states that he was very fortunate to live his dream but when he had the world in his hands, he let it slip due to him being busy patting himself on the back. He addresses his release in 2009 in which he believes he deserved to be released. The second chance he has now gives him a new lease on life because without wrestling, he’s just living. Having wrestled since 1999, his seventeen year career has been leading up to this but if he can’t win it all, is coming up short just his life story? God damn! These promo packages are just something else, eh? Like these are fucking excellently put together, aren’t they?
JT: They really are. For someone like Tajiri, being able to get some subtitles is so nice, considering he normally can’t get any translation for his words. Then for someone like Kendrick, it’s great to have this because it really bridges the gap between who he was last time we saw him and who he is now. Because even from an obvious aesthetic perspective, he’s very different.
S: Oh definitely, the gear is different, he’s wearing long tights, he’s leaner. No long dying his hair blonde and looking like Leonardo Di Caprio, he’s got his long brown hair and that goatee though!
JT: He’s gone from DiCaprio in Titanic to DiCaprio in The Revenant!
S: Yes! That is a great shout actually. He’s gone from the artist to the grizzled veteran.
JT: Finally, we’re onto our last performer spotlight, that being for the biggest new talent brought in, Kota Ibushi! Bryan has faced him before, and the WWE fanbase has seen him once before as Ibushi was shown on camera for Takeover Dallas. He says he doesn’t mean to represent Japan, he just wants to show how good Japanese wrestling is. He wants more people to watch him, and this is all interspersed with footage of him fighting Will Ospreay, Aleister Black. He mentions having fought Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn and says his inner passion will let him prevail. “I love pro wrestling more than anyone else”. Mauro & Bryan are real frank as they say “It doesn’t get any better than Kota Ibushi”. He’s a former 3x IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion, having defeated Low Ki and Finn Balor (twice). Bryan says that he is two of the hardest kickers Bryan has ever faced, along with Hideo Itami. With all this said though, Ibushi had a herniated disc recently, will he be the same heading into this? Either way, he’s got that strong style, meaning Ibushi believes rather than avoiding moves like in Lucha Libre or escaping like ZSJ’s submission style, he knows you have to take damage to win. He’ll just kick his way out of holds and moves. And this tenacity makes him clearly one of the favorites.
S: Loved the way they built him up with this segment, they made him feel like a massive force in this tournament but also pointed out his weakness which was his previously herniated disc in his neck. Will that play into the tournament?
JT: We’ll just have to see. Now just before we end this, we have an extra special final guest, don’t we?
S: It’s the man in charge, Uncle Paul himself. Triiiiiple H-ahhhhhh!
JT: That’s right, it’s Tri himself. You know it’s a big deal to get Mr. Heir Apparent on for this show, talking about the future of “this business” as he’s so apt to say. Mauro comments that he never would have expected something like “The Cruiserweight Classic” to ever happen in WWE, and HHH acknowledges that Mauro isn’t the only one. He says this is something he’s been thinking about for a while, because there’s never been this sort of platform before for all these wrestlers who are so passionate about their wrestling. But now there is, and he says quite frankly that this sort of thing is where the future of the company lies. He says it’s guys like Bryan who shifted the paradigm in WWE. And I just wanted to focus on this little section for a bit. What do you think of Triple H talking about Cruiserweights and the CWC as the future of the company and of Bryan being a paradigm shift?
S: That’s right, it’s Tri himself. You know it’s a big deal to get Mr. Heir Apparent on for this show, talking about the future of “this business” as he’s so apt to say. Mauro comments that he never would have expected something like “The Cruiserweight Classic” to ever happen in WWE, and HHH acknowledges that Mauro isn’t the only one. He says this is something he’s been thinking about for a while, because there’s never been this sort of platform before for all these wrestlers who are so passionate about their wrestling. But now there is, and he says quite frankly that this sort of thing is where the future of the company lies. He says it’s guys like Bryan who shifted the paradigm in WWE. And I just wanted to focus on this little section for a bit. What do you think of Triple H talking about Cruiserweights and the CWC as the future of the company and of Bryan being a paradigm shift?
JT: Yeah agreed. I think what comes across when he’s talking about Bryan to Bryan is that these two clearly liked working together. Y’know whether or not anyone thinks Triple H/Vince/Stephanie actually saw Bryan as the guy the fans saw him as heading in at WrestleMania is kind of irrelevant to this, I just think through seeing how they interact, it’s clear that those two liked working together. Or at the very least, they’ve got a lot of respect for each other after that whole run.
S: Yeah and the feud these two had as well was simply brilliant as well but it wouldn’t have had it’s proper conclusion if Punk stayed because Punk vs H was the plan. Touching back on this though, the respect is clearly there and it shows when you watch this segment.
JT: So The Game continues talking about giving the guys a chance to shine, showing the other styles is exciting. He reiterates that it isn’t isn’t all about high flyers, it’s about the best technical wrestling too (which is interspersed with footage of Footage of Sabre vs Will Ospreay, TJP vs Drew Gulak, and Gulak vs Tracy Williams). He says it’s all about finding diverse styles. And to cut this off again briefly, how much of this do you buy? Like, what I mean is that there’s clearly a real split understanding of Triple H and his philosophy online. Like, some seem to see him as this real old school guy, who thinks top guys need to be tall, jacked and dress nice. But there’s this other aspect of his philosophy that’s seemed to come on in the past few years, of him being essentially “the student of the game”. Like, I almost get the impression that he’s a big wrestling nerd, who wants to see all sorts of great matches and different styles. What do you see, what do you think?
S: What you think is exactly what I think. In my opinion I do think he’s genuinely a massive fan of wrestling who understands that there needs to be variety in it and understands that there are certain slots to be filled. I also feel like he is genuinely a fan of all types of wrestling and sees the value in each style. I think he knows a top guy when he sees one and he knows good wrestling.
JT: Yeah I also think a lot of his older comments like say, Kurt Angle being “too short” was a result of his position at the time. Since he was on top, he would’ve been defensive in order to keep his place on the top. But now that he no longer has to worry about his position? He can be more open to different kinds of wrestling, so long as he thinks it can help WWE thrive and survive anyways.
S: Agreed 100%. His attitude back then was very common of a lot of top guys in any era who are very protective of their spot too.
JT: On the more casual side of things, HHH says that he knew the CWC would be a success because they’ve found guys Bryan doesn’t know about. He also answers the question of whether this is one and done? And he says that it’s not. He’s not sure what it’s leading to, but it’ll be an opportunity for everyone involved. He can tell the hunger and passion at the PC has been off the charts, so it’s going to be a great tournament. And just like that’s, that’s it! And final comments about what Tri said right there?
S: All I can ask is where is Cruiserweight Classic 2 baybeeeee?
JT: Sigh, I can only dream, at least for now. Like, considering all the people they have on the roster now, they could probably construct a CWC with just the roster they have across 205 Live, NXT and NXT UK. But I just get the feeling that when he answered that this wasn’t a one off, he meant more tournaments. Like, I can’t see them going through the huge scouting process and reaching out to independent wrestlers again, not after the big 2 turned them down (as we’ll get to later in this arc).
S: And those big two were… Clement Petiot and Jason Lee.
JT: Shhhh spoilers!!
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Powering Down
JT: So just like that, we’re done with episode 1!!!
S: We have wrapped up our preamble episode, it was quick and it was very relaxing. James, your Match of the Night and MVP plea- shit, there were no matches…
JT: You’re right there. With this prologue episode, we pretty much got the majority of the taking segments from this whole tournament. Aside from the individual competitor promos, which we even got a few of in this episode, there really are just matches left on the docket. A whopping 31 matches in the tournament, and a few extra ones to go alongside that, if I’m remembering things correctly.
S: That’s right, James, we’ve certainly got an action packed season ahead of us with the CWC Tournament on the horizon. It’s been a lovely review just getting to talk about the non-wrestling aspects to wrestling and getting to tease the taste buds ahead of what should be a great time for us.
JT: I hope this hasn’t been too dry for y’all, just know that the best episodes are still to come!! Next time, we’ve got ourselves a double header!!
S: Next time, we’re gonna be reviewing the first two proper episodes of the Cruiserweight Classic. So we’ll be covering the first half of the first round. What matches will be on there? Who knows! It’s all fun and games for this season, sure.
JT: Last season involved a lot of outside the ring nonsense, this time it’s all about action, action, action!! Lots of matches, from lots of interesting guys, who have led lots of interesting careers since then. I cannot wait to get down to business again. But until then, this is a ta-ta from me James!
S: And a chat ya later from me, Seán!
JT: And as always, make sure to keep on rolling down the line!!
S: Cue the Big Train!
The JT & Seány Mc Power Hour 