10 Cruiserweight Wrestling Champions Who Later Won World Titles

10. Finn Bálor

WWE devotees know Fergal Devitt as Finn Bálor, the man who has Pelé Kicked his way through Raw and SmackDown! for 4 years now. But before he was Balor, he was Prince Devitt, who roundhouse kicked his way through New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Establishing himself as one of the most outstanding junior heavyweights in the world, he picked up a surplus of accolades: captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (3 times), was an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champ (6 times) and won the Best of the Super Juniors (twice). The former leader of the Bullet Club though couldn’t conquer the Heavyweights there to win the coveted IWGP Heavyweight Championship though.

It took him securing a visa to come work in America for him to win the big one. He first ruled over NXT as Champ before being promoted to Universal Champ for the Raw brand at SummerSlam (2016). It took an injury to Finn to vacate the title the very next night but he’s in the history books as the first WWE Universal Champion.

This one time ‘junior’ has since fought giants like Brock Lesner and gone toe-to-toe with the franchise of WWE John Cena in thrilling matches, as well as venture back to NXT to once again rule the roster with the NXT Championship.