10 Things We Learned From The WWE Cruiserweight Classic

by John Bills

1. The Wait For The Next One Will Be Long

Will Ospreay KUSHIDA New Japan Pro Wrestling
njpw.co.jp

The Cruiserweight Classic was fantastic, it truly was. 32 fine athletes came together to compete in some of the best WWE matches of the year, leaving memories to last and creating a whole host of new stars in the process. It was everything it promised to be, and then some.

But did it contain the best junior heavyweights in the world? Quite clearly, no. Will Ospreay has had an incredible year, but his contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling put paid to his appearance. Ricochet was in a similar position with Lucha Underground, and legendary names such as Jushin Thunder Liger and Rey Mysterio were also conspicuous by their absence.

All this without mentioning the man who has beaten all the above (except Rey) in 2016, the current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA. The former Timesplitter is the ace of New Japan's junior heavy scene, and any discussion over who may be the best cruiser in the world may well end with him.

Triple H has already made it clear that this won't be a one-and-done tournament, and we can look forward to another Cruiserweight Classic in the future. Will it happen next year? We don't know. Will it feature even more talent from around the world? We can only hope. I can't wait to see.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.