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In his first act as 205 Live General Manager, Drake Maverick revealed on Tuesday that a 16-man tournament will take place over the next few weeks to determine a new Cruiserweight champion.
Cedric Alexander and TJP have already progressed to the Second Round, defeating Gran Metalik and Tyler Bate respectively, while the First Round continues next week with Kalisto vs. Lince Dorado and Hideo Itami vs. Roderick Strong.
The Cruiserweight title, vacated in January following the firing of Enzo Amore, will be on the line when the tournament’s two finalists go one-on-one at WrestleMania 34, but which of the 14 remaining participants will emerge with the championship?
In this article, presuming that Neville (inactive), Rich Swann (suspended), Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar (both injured) don’t feature in the tournament, we take a look at five Superstars who could leave “The Show of Shows” as Cruiserweight champion.
#5 Cedric Alexander
Does anyone else find it a little unfair that Cedric Alexander has earned a shot at the Cruiserweight Championship on two occasions, yet he finds himself having to compete in a 16-man tournament for another right to win the title?
“The Entertainer” first became #1 contender in December 2017 and he was set to get a second opportunity at Enzo Amore’s title at the Royal Rumble. However, due to Enzo’s dismissal from WWE, the Rumble match never happened and Cedric’s #1 contender status was taken away.
For that reason alone, you’d expect WWE to repay Cedric somewhat by having him go far in this 16-man tournament. He kicked off the First Round with a win over Gran Metalik and, although we only consider him the fifth-favourite to go all the way, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him at least make the final.
#4 Drew Gulak
Let’s be honest, although Tuesday’s episode was its best in a number of months, 205 Live is widely considered to be the least popular of WWE’s weekly in-ring shows (Raw, SmackDown Live, NXT, and even the Mixed Match Challenge).
However, one man who has become a popular presence on the show, and more recently on Raw, is Drew Gulak – the anti-cruiserweight, if you will, who campaigns “for a better 205 Live” by encouraging his fellow Superstars to stop performing high-risk manoeuvres and by telling the crowd not to chant.
On paper, the gimmick sounds terrible, but Gulak makes it work. His entertaining character has won him lots of fans, even though he’s technically still a bad guy, and few cruiserweights would receive a better response from the WrestleMania 34 crowd than the creator of “The No-Fly Zone”.
#3 Drake Maverick
Drake Maverick has only just joined 205 Live as the show’s General Manager, but fans who are familiar with his previous persona (Impact Wrestling’s Rockstar Spud) are predicting that he’ll be an in-ring performer in WWE before too long.
That looks entirely possible when you consider that the Cruiserweight Championship tournament will consist of 16 performers and that there are only 12 active regular cruiserweights, plus Tyler Bate and Roderick Strong, in the division right now.
If WWE wants to spring a surprise, perhaps Maverick could ditch the tuxedo for his wrestling tights and enter the tournament over the next few weeks. His new character appears to have gone down well with fans, so we can’t rule it out!
#2 Ricochet
Unless Rich Swann, Neville or The Brian Kendrick return to WWE television anytime soon, there’s every chance that we’ll see two more surprise entrants in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament.
If Drake Maverick is one, then perhaps Trevor Mann, aka Ricochet, could be another? With Neville yet to return and Enzo Amore having left WWE, the cruiserweight division is in need of some major star power, and cruiserweight stars don’t get much bigger than “The Future of Flight”.
Triple H said when WWE signed Ricochet that he expects the high-flyer to begin life with the company in NXT. However, many fans anticipate him joining 205 Live eventually, so perhaps the 14-year veteran could be propelled to the main roster right away.
#1 Hideo Itami
As soon as it was confirmed that Hideo Itami would leave NXT to join 205 Live, many fans expected him to target Enzo Amore right away and win the Cruiserweight Championship, either at the Royal Rumble or at WrestleMania 34.
As it turned out, a feud between the two never got started. Instead, the man formerly known as Kenta has racked up six victories from six matches since joining the cruiserweight division and he still hasn’t been involved in any meaningful storylines.
His match against main-roster debutant Roderick Strong in the First Round should be among the best of the tournament. Providing he wins, it’s safe to assume that Hideo will at least be a finalist at WrestleMania, if not the overall winner.
