8 Best WCW Cruiserweight Championship Matches

Mysterio and Malenko had a plethora of fantastic matches in WCW. In fact, Rey's WCW debut was against The Man of 1,000 Holds a the 1996 Great American Bash (amazingly the masked man actually thought it was a simple house show and not a title match live on pay-per-view).

Regardless of the situation, whenever the two men locked up the results were usually awesome. That was very much the case at Halloween Havoc '96, when Malenko challenged Rey for his Cruiserweight Title. The two had been going back and forth over the past few months and this would be their last major singles PPV bout.

Similar to the Malenko's match with Ultimo Dragon, he tried to ground his high-flying opponent with submissions and suplexes. Rey was always in the fight, however, surprising his calculated foe with springboard 'ranas, dives and all manner of unique offense.

This stuff really was tremendously cutting-edge at the time and had aged surprisingly well. Watching it back some 20 years later, you can't help but marvel at the smoothness, timing and execution of what they're doing in there. Was everything crisp as could be? No, there were one or two moments of sloppiness, but it didn't detract from the match.

The finish to this one is a beaut, too. After trying everything he could to get Dean down, Rey tries one Frankensteiner too many and ends up eating a top rope Doctorbomb for his troubles, with Malenko being crowned the new champion.

A fantastic eighteen-minute affair, one of many between this pairing that are worth seeking out.