10 Cruiserweight Wrestling Champions Who Later Won World Titles

8. Chris Jericho

It’s hard to imagine Chris Jericho as anything other than the legendary possibly/probably Mount Rushmore wrestler he’s confirmed himself to be in his storied 30-year career. But at one time backstage brass only ever saw him as that entertaining cruiserweight.

Jericho debuted for WCW in August 1996, playing the good-looking run-of-the-mill babyface in its cruiserweight division that managed to snag him the Cruiserweight Championship twice. It was only after he turned heel by brutally attacking Rey Mysterio Jr.’s knee and won the title for a 3rd time that he was able to build the momentum that he would carry through his whole career.

WCW higher-ups though never saw him as anything but a cruiserweight. Because of this and knowing his worth, Jericho jumped ship to WWE where he slowly climbed the ranks with every passing month, going through all kinds of well documented backstage politics to reach headliner status, capturing every mid-card title there was before being crowned WCW Champion (in the Invasion storyline) before being crowned the first Undisputed Champion by defeating The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night.

Now Jericho works in AEW with headliner talent that would have probably been relegated to cruiserweights just like him in WCW had they been born 25 years ago.