10 Best Cruiserweight Wrestlers In The World Today

8. Kamaitachi

There's not a training program on Earth that puts out wrestlers the caliber of New Japan Dojo graduates. Once these "young lions" make their debuts, though, they're not finished learning. They spend years losing to veteran talent on the undercards of shows, and when they're ready, they go on excursion, taking a long trip overseas to learn different wrestling styles. Hiromu Takahashi, who graduated from the dojo in 2010, hasn't even finished his excursion and he's already one of wrestling's best cruiserweights. Traveling to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 2014, Takahashi adopted the name Kamaitachi. The talented star really broke out the following year, though, when he began to feud with the high-flying Dragon Lee. Lee dominated Kamaitachi, defeating him for his mask and managing to retain his World Lightweight Championship at every turn. Still, Kamaitachi grew as a wrestler, making the program one of the year's best. In early 2016, Dragon Lee came to New Japan with several other CMLL stars for the companies' annual Fantasticamania tour. Unbeknownst to him, though, Kamaitachi was hot on his tail. On the penultimate night of the tour, Kamaitachi attacked Lee, and at the final show they had one more match for the title. That match, a classic that gripped the fans in Tokyo's Korakuen Hall, saw Kamaitachi finally become World Lightweight Champion.