WWE Announces Seven Cruiserweights Headed to Monday Night Raw
The Cruiserweight Classic ended this past Wednesday night when TJ Perkins won the trophy as well as the brand new WWE Cruiserweight Championship. It was a great show, which I reviewed here, and it also got a lot of WWE fans excited about the future because of the cruiserweight division heading to Raw.
This coming Monday, Raw will be the exclusive home of the cruiserweight division. Who will be a part of it? WWE released these seven names in a post on WWE.com on Friday afternoon:
- TJ Perkins – The Cruiserweight Champion
- Brian Kendrick
- Rich Swann
- Gran Metalik
- Cedric Alexander
- Lince Dorado
- Noam Dar
Everybody on the list except Dorado was on a previous list reported by the Wrestling Observer and PWInsider. Those ten names were: TJ Perkins, Gran Metalik, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Brian Kendrick, Rich Swann, Noam Dar, Cedric Alexander, Akira Tozawa and Jack Gallagher.
Lince Dorado wasn’t on the previously released lists, but he has worked some NXT tapings. I guess it’s one of those things where he may not have agreed to terms before, but he’s there now.
I’m surprised that Gargano & Ciampa weren’t a part of the initial list. Maybe WWE wants to keep them as a NXT team exclusively for now and save their first Raw appearances for down the road.
As for Metalik, he’s coming to Raw soon, but the reports are that he has some family things to deal with in Mexico and still has some bookings there. Once that is done he’ll be in WWE full time.
Gallagher was shown ringside at the Cruiserweight Classic. Tozawa wasn’t there, but is likely still coming in as well. Sometimes it take people from other countries to get in there because of legal issues.
It will be interesting to see if Raw superstar Neville gets involved in the division. Others that could do well include Smackdown’s Kalisto and Austin Aries in NXT.
I’m not really worried about depth in the cruiserweight division in WWE. I just hope they are given time to show what they can do.