All 32 Participants Of WWE Cruiserweight Classic Revealed; Ibushi, Tajiri, Kendrick, Sabre Jr, TJ Perkins & More!
World Wrestling Entertainment announced today the 32 wrestlers that will be participating in this year’s inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Classic. There is a list of all 32 men on WWE.com which are accompanied with bio’s on each wrestler. To look into it in more depth, you can click right here. The following are the names of the 32 participants.
- Kota Ibushi
- Gran Metalik
- Tajiri
- Zack Sabre Jr.
- Noam Dar
- Da Mack
- Zumbi
- Clement Petiot
- Fabian Aichner
- Harv Sihra
- Gurv Sihra
- Rich Swann
- Brian Kendrick
- Cedric Alexander
- Akira Tozawa
- Jack Gallagher
- Johnny Gargano
- Tony Nese
- Tommaso Ciampa
- Ho Ho Lun
- TJ Perkins
- Anthony Bennett
- Drew Gulak
- Tyson Dux
- Lince Dorado
- Sean Maluta
- Raul Mendoza
- Kenneth Johnson
- Alejandro Saez
- Damian Slater
- Jason Lee
- Ariya Daivari
The tapings for this 10-week tournament will take place at the home of NXT, Full Sail University, beginning June 23. The Cruiserweight Classic will start airing on the WWE Network Wednesday, July 13 at 9:00 pm EST.
Mark’s reaction: I’m most excited to see that Kota Ibushi will definitely be in the tournament. I think he weighs right around 205 lbs, so he just makes the cut as a cruiserweight. I figured Ibushi would be in the tournament after Phillips and Graves alluded to him being in it when he was shown at ringside during NXT TakeOver: Dallas. However, it’s nice to have the confirmation.
I’d like to see Ibushi win it and go on to be an active member of NXT/the main roster. I like Zack Sabre Jr. in this tournament, but I think since he’s still so young that he’ll do just fine in the future without winning it. Ibushi’s 34 years old and needs the win a little bit more to speed his time in WWE along (if he does in fact stay).
The other two names that stood out to me when reading this list was the return of Tajiri and Brian Kendrick. Those were some surprises. It’ll be nice to see the two of them back in a WWE ring again. Although I don’t think they have any chance of winning, it’s smart to put those two in the tournament as it gives the casual fans who may not watch NXT or much independent wrestling a few guys they recognize.
Picture used above is courtesy of WWE.com.