Remember loveable loser Funaki? As a member of Kaientai, Funaki (along with TAKA Michinoku) was a lot of fun to watch. Once TAKA decided he'd be better off in Japan and left Funaki on his own, Smackdown's 'number one announcer' met with considerably less success. He was strictly a jobber or a Velocity/house show wrestler. If Funaki was on Smackdown, odds were that in just a couple of minutes, he'd be walking to the back, having lost yet another match. It was somewhat odd, then, when Funaki was booked to win a number one contenders battle royal at the December 9th episode of Smackdown. Three days later, Funaki was wrestling Spike Dudley for the Cruiserweight Championship at Armageddon. Astonishingly Funaki (who'd had about five matches that year) actually won the title from Spike. He would hold it for three months, before mercifully dropping it to Chavo Guerrero at No Way Out 2005. Funaki's win was supposed to be a shocking moment that fans would pop for. Trouble was, the fans didn't care one iota about the 'plucky underdog' and the only person who marked out for his victory was Funaki himself. WWE had a host of talented, hard-working cruiserweights on their books at the time, yet they decided to give it to Shawn Michaels' mate.
