10 WCW Cruiserweight Matches You Should Watch

Ultimo Dragon was the complete package as a cruiserweight; a great technical wrestler with aerial and submission skills. And in this match, he faced off with a great mat wrestler in Dean Malenko.

This match is such a great descriptor of what the Cruiserweight division was and Eric Bischoff gave this one away for free at Clash of the Champions. When you hear about him giving matches like Goldberg and Hogan on Nitro, this is on a short list of matches that were Pay-Per-View worthy.

While most wrestling fans think Malenko is a great foil for the aerial wrestler, Dragon was a great foil for the mat-based Malenko. He went move for move with the Man of 1000 Holds and wrestled a fantastically paced match for the Cruiserweight Title. It wasn’t too fast or too slow, but it had the few big spots you’d expect from the match. A few near-falls and the psychology reminded me of any early 90s Intercontinental Title match involving HBK.

After fighting off the interference of Sonny Onoo, Malenko was able to lock a Texas Cloverleaf on Dragon and make him tap out. Even though it is not as high on my list as some other Dragon or Malenko matches, this is one of the best full wrestling matches in Clash of the Champions history.