7 Ups And 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2017

3. Neville Is Crowned Champ

neville cruiserweight champs
WWE.com

The journey of the four-month-old cruiserweight division has been a checkered one, with no one really catching on as champ, and the division flailing at times. Short matches that don’t reflect what the wrestlers can do in the ring haven’t helped matters.

But Sunday, Neville and Rich Swann got a little time to put together a pretty decent match, with the two starting slowly but building to them trading wicked kicks and some highspots. It all was capped off with Neville, the most recognizable superstar in the division, capturing the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. It helped that the match itself was more involved and complete than the typical bout we’ve gotten on Raw.

Neville’s new heel persona had instantly made him 100 times more interesting and instantly unlikable, and as a result, he deserves a run with the title to see if that can spark something with the division.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.