8 Puzzling Things About The Original WWE Draft

3. Not Drafting The Cruiserweight Champion

Vince McMahon 2002 Draft
WWE

As you enjoy the Cruiserweight Classic and appreciate the steps Triple H and others have taken to bring international and independent flavours to the WWE world, remind yourself that there was a time where WWE seemed to rue the idea that they had a weight-exclusive belt for smaller wrestlers.

This was made clear when Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri went undrafted during the televised portion of the show.

Instead, Tajiri was taken in the 'random selection' portion, getting whisked to Smackdown along with the belt. While McMahon was lamenting (in story) not getting to draft Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam, and even booked Smackdown pick Kurt Angle to try and win the belt from him that night, the Cruiserweight title was an afterthought.

It was just, "Oh, I guess the belt's exclusive to my brand", and that was that.

Contributor
Contributor

Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.