Every WWE Cruiserweight Classic Wrestler - Where Are They Now?
From AEW to TNA. Analysing what the Cruiserweight Classic lot have been up to for the past decade.
Tournament fever hit WWE hard in the mid-2010s, resulting in a promotion whose bracket-based output had been rendered entirely redundant: Following a streak of p*ss-weak King Of The Ring revivals, producing an unbalanced selection of Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classics, 2 United Kingdom Championship Tournaments that predated the tragic NXT UK brand, and a couple of Mae Young Classics that did their best to make up for 3 decades of WWE treating every woman as though they were prostitutes.
None of that was must-see. By the mid-2010s, the wider wrestling world was more accessible than ever before. If you wanted to watch a tournament that actually was can't-miss, you could fire up New Japan World for a dreamy G1 Climax or, if you take your wrestling with high spots for the sake of high spots, you could quite literally sign up to Highspots to revisit a Battle Of Los Angeles.
Regardless, WWE tried.
They really tried with the Cruiserweight Classic.
Offering a summer of sports that no Brazilian Olympics could match, the tournament brought together what was touted as the 32 greatest flyers in the world at the time, which bizarrely included The Brian Kendrick (?!) and Tajiri (!!). More peculiar is discovering that, a full decade later, Tajiri has accomplished more than most of his lesser-known competitors.
Most, but not all...
31. Fabian Aichner
Tournament result: Defeated in the first round by Jack Gallagher.
What was he doing at the time?
Receiving rave reviews on the smaller-scale German indie scene, Fabian Aichner was Adrian Severe. He had the most NXT-sounding ring moniker before they were even in fashion. Not that it held him back, mind; he was technically a Triple Crown Champion for the Alex Wright-founded New European Championship Wrestling. He was practically the exclusive property of 'Das Wunderkind' before switching Germany for the United States, though - and this really isn't important and is solely mentioned because of how ridiculous it sounds if you know the scene - he did also work the British caravan park circuit through All Star Wrestling.
What is he doing now?
Finally wrestling again.
A spring 2024 split from longstanding Imperium partner Ludwig Kaiser meant the end of the road for Aichner, then Giovanni Vinci, in WWE. He briefly returned to company programming in an embarrassing 3-second loss to Apollo Crews, with his P45 coming through the post in February 2025. A thirteen-month sabbatical finally ended in May 2026 when he arrived in TNA's X Division.