10 Cruiserweight Wrestling Champions Who Later Won World Titles

2. Kenny Omega

Before he joined AEW, Seven-star performer Kenny Omega made a name for himself in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He first competed for them in the 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

Omega mostly wrestled in bouts revolving around NJPW’s Junior Heavyweight titles, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship twice as well as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Kota Ibushi. It was teased that he could one day win the coveted IWGP Heavyweight Championship, defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals of the G1 Climax tournament in 2016 for a chance to compete for the gold. He put in a valiant effort but lost to Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in the main event. He then wrestled Okada in a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 6 but it ended in a 60-minute time limit draw. In 2018, the same year he put in amazing performance against Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12, he finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with a win over Okada in a two out of three falls match with no time limits.

Now that he’s lost the World Tag Team titles with Adam Page, fans are eagerly awaiting a world title run in AEW from the Cleaner.