10 Things We Learned From The WWE Cruiserweight Classic

3. Submissions Are The New Flying

TJ Perkins Gran Metalik Knee Bar Cruiserweight Classic WWE
WWE.com

Cruiserweight wrestling has well and truly changed. When the lighter chaps exploded onto the western wrestling scene in the mid to late 1990s the real eye-openers came with the high-flying antics of Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis and more. These luchadors were performing moves we'd never seen before, pushing the envelope like never before.

Whilst there was plenty of high-flying in the Cruiserweight Classic, it is clear that an entirely different style of wrestling dominates the modern cruiser landscape. Just shy of 50% of the matches in the tournament ended via submission, as technical wrestling took the spotlight away from the moonsaults and 450 splashes.

TJ Perkins would go on to win the tournament via submission in the final, putting away Gran Metalik just as he had Ibushi, Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano and Da Mack. Zack Sabre Jr. made it to the semis on a variety of submission moves, and men like Noam Dar and Jack Gallagher are poised to bring technical wrestling to the fore in the new Cruiserweight division.

Dean Malenko would be proud.

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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.