When I first began to write about professional wrestling almost five years ago, one of the very first columns I wrote was about the then-WWF Light-Heavyweight division. This was around the time that Christian, then under the guidance of Gangrel, won the Light-Heavyweight title from Taka Michinoku in his very first televised match.
Taka's challengers for his title had been few and far between up until that point. Having won a tournament final against Brian Christopher, and feuded with the future Grand Master Sexay for months over the title, Taka hadn't done much on WWF television, until he met Christian on pay-per-view.
While Taka didn't receive a rematch on television, Christian would go on to lose the title to none other than Dwayne Gill, or rather, Gillberg. The fact that the champion at the time was nothing more than a glorified jobber said it all about the direction that this division was taking at the time.
Taka's challengers for his title had been few and far between up until that point. Having won a tournament final against Brian Christopher, and feuded with the future Grand Master Sexay for months over the title, Taka hadn't done much on WWF television, until he met Christian on pay-per-view.
While Taka didn't receive a rematch on television, Christian would go on to lose the title to none other than Dwayne Gill, or rather, Gillberg. The fact that the champion at the time was nothing more than a glorified jobber said it all about the direction that this division was taking at the time.
That column five years ago said as much, and gave also gave a list of wrestlers who might liven up the ailing division. It listed the likes of Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero as people who might be able to shake things up a little, make it more entertaining for the fans.
In the past five years, the Light-Heavyweight division has morphed into the Cruiserweight division, and just over a week from the WWE's second-biggest event of the year, I find myself watching Smackdown, and once again thinking that a this division is going to pot all over again.
Summerslam is one of the so-called "big four" shows that the WWE promotes. It's been on the calendar since 1998, and is second only to Wrestlemania in terms of stature and prestige. Yet it's sad that on this kind of stage, a place can't be found for what was once the Smackdown brand's secondary singles title.
During the dying days of World Championship Wrestling, one of the few highlights of the ailing company was it's cruiserweight division. Eric Bischoff was a big believer in the smaller wrestler, and with men like Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, Ultimo Dragon, Juventud Guerrera, and many more, the company had a division it could be proud of, something that was the envy of it's larger neighbour up north, which is the reason that the WWF introduced a lightweight division of it's own.
Today's WWE Cruiserweight Champion, Rey Mysterio, is a fine athlete, one of the best wrestlers in the company at the moment, and certainly one of the highlights of the Smackdown brand.
Some of the other wrestlers who fit into the division are also capable of stealing any show - Jamie Knoble, Nunzio, Chavo Guerrero, Sho Funaki, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Ultimo Dragon, Billy Kidman, Shannon Moore, Matt Hardy, and, from the Raw side of things, the Hurricane and Spike Dudley, would be the envy of any lightweight division of any wrestling company.
But five years removed from that early column I find myself asking that question again. I'm left wondering just what it would take for Vince McMahon and the WWE writers to realise just what they have before them.
The fans are screaming out for top-notch wrestling action. The smart marks are screaming out for top-notch wrestling action. They could find it in the cruiserweight division, but most of the smaller guys are nothing more than cannon fodder for the larger wrestlers, and they are made to look inferior and unworthy of the big stage next to their larger counterparts.
The recent signing of the Ultimo Dragon seemed to be a sign that things could be turning around for this ailing division. Now, if you believe the rumours you here on the Internet, the head honcho of the WWE hadn't even seen one of the Dragon's matches before he signed him, and once he had seen him in action, didn't like what he saw. The huge build-up to his arrival, which was very similar to that of Rey Mysterio's, has since made the booking team look rather silly. Dragon is now relegated to matches on the WWE's weekend shows, without a major feud in sight.
Before the brand extension last year, rumour also had it that the cruiserweight division wasn't pushed that much was because that certain wrestlers felt that their positions would be threatened by the smaller guys, that if these smaller guys could pull off match-stealing performances at the beginning or in the middle of big shows, then their efforts would look second-rate. There was a story doing the rounds that during a Raw dark-match a while back, a match between the teams of Little Guido and Tony Marmaluke and Danny Doring and Roadkill stole the show and put the rest of the roster to shame, mainly because of the work of the three smaller guys involved. Many wrestlers were apparently irate because this match was better than the majority of those recorded for television.
If this is the case, then it's a great shame, and just goes to show that certain wrestlers are more concerned with their careers than the good of the company.
With the news that Vengeance, the first Smackdown-only pay-per-view drew a very small buyrate, the lack of a push for the cruiserweight division is baffling to say the least. What could have been the shining light of the Smackdown brand is now nothing more than a sham, it's wrestlers now nothing more than glorified jobbers.
Gillberg would be right at home if he were to come back now.
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