7 Cruiserweights Who Beat Ric Flair

"I don't think we'll ever see the day that a cruiserweight will main event WrestleMania."

So said 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair in an interview last week when asked about the upcoming Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins match at SummerSlam. Flair's comments were based on the fact he thought Reigns should have defeated Bálor, and that despite the many obvious upsides of The Demon, he'll struggle to make it to the main event of WrestleMania.

Of course, these are just the slightly confused words of an old legend, but let's delve deep into them nonetheless. Flair is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling, the same company that brought a number of cruiserweight competitors into the living rooms of wrestling fans all over the world.

The weight limit for the cruiserweight division in WCW was 225lbs, and by that qualifier a number of cruisers have already headlined WrestleMania (Daniel Bryan, The Miz, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho). But I'm not here to look at that.

No, I'm here to see which cruiserweight wrestlers have defeated Ric Flair. Now, there are two men that could be added to this list as they fit the weight criteria, but those two men are Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff, so stuff that. There is also one man who has generally been billed at just over the limit, but he is a former cruiserweight champion.

With that in mind, here are seven cruiserweight wrestlers that defeated Ric Flair.

I'll start with objectively one of the greatest cruiserweight wrestlers of all time. Rey Mysterio and Ric Flair only faced off in singles competition once, but the stakes for that match could not have been higher; Flair's WCW World Heavyweight Championship was on the line.

It was one of those Nitro's that took place outdoors on a beach or something, and in truth WCW was clearly a mess at this point. The title scene still revolved around men like Flair, Hogan and Kevin Nash, and fans were turning to WWF in search of new, exciting talent like The Rock, Steve Austin and Triple H.

Rey had a shot at the title in the main event however, and this represents the only match on this list where the whole 'Heavyweight' vs. 'Cruiserweight' is actively spoke of by the announcers. Rey was the Cruiserweight Champion at the time, despite not having his mask anymore.

Anyway, the match is kinda terrible, as Flair simply can't keep up with Rey whatsoever. Mysterio hits a Rana, but before Charles Robinson can count three Arn Anderson pulls him out the ring, causing the DQ finish. Still, the record books state that Rey Mysterio defeated Ric Flair.