10 Cruiserweight Wrestling Champions Who Later Won World Titles

3. Eddie Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero tore it up in WCW’s thrilling cruiserweight division in the ‘90s during the Monday Night Wars with excellent showings against Ultimo Dragon, Dean Malenko and others. He first won the Cruiserweight title at Fall Brawl (1997) and feuded with Chris Jericho over it. It’s bizarre to think these two legends were once wrestling together in opening matches for WCW (imagine if there are two performers in NXT’s Cruiserweight division that will turn out to be the same calibre of performers Jericho and Guerrero later grew into in their careers).

It was when he was in the cruiserweight title picture that he might have had the best match of his life at Halloween Havoc against Rey Mysterio Jr. in a title vs. Mask match. When Eddie got to WWE he slowly climbed the heavyweight ranks to become WWE Champion, winning the title in 2004 in an incredible contest against Brock Lesner at the Cow Palace in a major upset. He’d be showcased as a major player in the heavyweight division from then on until his untimely death in 2005.

Fingers crossed Angel Garza, who often is compared to Eddie, can follow suit and go from one-time Cruiserweight Champion to world champion sometime in the future.