One of the biggest advantages that WCW had over WWF during the earlier part of the Monday Night Wars was their cruiserweight division. Every week, this smaller yet more technically-sound athletes would dazzle crowd with impressive aerial maneuvers and submission wrestling that was often missing from the main event picture, which usually featured the more charismatic but less-skilled wrestlers. It is impossible to determine one individual as the biggest draw in the division; Billy Kidman, Jushin Thunder Liger, Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon, Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, Flyin Brian Pillman, and many other wrestlers all worked together to create one of the biggest draws in WCW history. A prime example of this mentality in action was when Benoit, Eddie, Malenko and Saturn defected to WWF. That episode of RAW drew a rating of 6.59, with their segment in particular drawing an 8.1. WCW, meanwhile, drew a 2.79 that week. Some of WCW's bookers at the time thought that these so-called 'vanilla midgets' couldn't draw, and the WCW audience was just like the WWE audience in that they favored the big, character-driven stars. They were clearly wrong.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
