10 Things We Learned From The WWE Cruiserweight Classic

5. The WWE Door Is Well And Truly Open

WWE Cruiserweight Classic Johnny Gargano TJ Perkins
WWE.com

The days of men who made their name elsewhere struggling making it to World Wrestling Entertainment are well and truly over. Even a basic knowledge of independent wrestling and a cursory glance at the brackets would tell you this, as men from outside companies filled the tournament.

Eventual winner TJ Perkins is a former TNA X-Division Champion, Cedric Alexander and Tommaso Ciampa largely made their names in Ring of Honor, Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese are veterans of the Dragon Gate/Evolve system and Kota Ibushi is arguably one of the biggest draws in Japanese wrestling today.

The message is clear; if you are good enough, it doesn't matter where you made your name. WWE is now aggressively pursuing the talent it wants regardless of schoolyard politics.

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Contributor
Contributor

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.