With ‘The Irish Ace’ Jordan Devlin unable to travel and defend his NXT Cruiserweight Championship, an interim Champion will be decided in a first for WWE. William Regal confirmed that a round-robin style tournament, with a very similar set-up to NJPW’s popular G1 Climax tournament, will take place over the next few weeks to determine the Cruiserweight who will take over from Devlin during his down-time. WWE have revealed the full line-up of both ‘blocks’, pitting eight of NXT’s top cruiserweights against one another to secure enough points that will grant them passage into the quarter and semi-final stages.
The G1 style is always good fun under NJPW’s roof, you tend to find some of the year’s best match-ups in amongst the annual event. Using the ailing 205 Live roster to trial a similar tournament under the WWE umbrella should hopefully generate some buzz for the roster, as well as lead to more exciting opportunities for tournaments elsewhere.
With the roster having so much depth, and a tonne of talent going underutilised or outright misused, a round-robin tournament on WWE television would help give some exposure to those wrestlers who will go the extra mile to produce a fantastic match. Not only that, but getting to see certain superstars be matched up against one another for the first time could act as a huge draw for WWE.
So who should walk away with the most points as we enter NXT’s Cruiserweight tournament? For me personally, there’s one entrant that stands head and heels over the rest of the competition, that being ‘The Time Splitter’ KUSHIDA.
A former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a breakout star of NXT’s undercard, KUSHIDA has yet to truly come out of his shell since debuting for NXT last year. KUSHIDA made brief waves across the wrestling world as part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Classic, competing alongside his long-time friend and partner, Alex Shelley. Unfortunately for the duo, they didn’t make it past the first round, being defeated by NXT UK’s Grizzled Young Veterans after what was a pretty exciting match and a great debut for The Time Splitters on mainstream TV.
KUSHIDA returned to singles competition and started putting together some fun Cruiserweight matches with the likes of Tony Nese, Cameron Grimes and most recently, Joaquin Wilde. He has occasionally taken an excursion to 205 Live, WWE’s prime-time spot for Cruiserweight action, where he’s been met by positive receptions. KUSHIDA has proven to be the most high-profile affiliate of the 205 Live roster, bringing a certain buzz with him whenever he’s given an airing on either show. It’s time for ‘The Time Splitter’ to finally ascend into championship competition.
The line-up for the interim Cruiserweight Championship tournament is pretty strong, with popular stars in Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott and former 205 GM Drake Maverick, the renewed Gentlemen Jack Gallagher and the debuting El Hijo del Fantasma all in the mix. There’s plenty of budding superstars waiting for their big rub and all deserve some sort of success, but more than anyone else, KUSHIDA’s star is something that needs to be capitalised on before he slips through the cracks and becomes just another signed name in WWE’s monopoly.
KUSHIDA has recently taken to Twitter to voice his intentions for the upcoming tournament. KUSHIDA seeks to capture the Cruiserweight Championship during the interim period and take the 205 Live roster to the next level. He rightfully addresses the issue of the Cruiserweight division not being given its due credit. Despite their best efforts, it just fails to connect with the fanbase on the level they expected it to after the CWC in 2016.
‘The Time Splitter’ is fully determined to turn things around for NXT’s new cruiserweight roster, giving them more exposure and a bigger spotlight as he emerges as the top of the food chain. He aims to bring the Cruiserweight title to Japan for the upcoming tour, should it go ahead as planned. It’d be great for the Japanese audience to see one of NJPW’s exports being treated well overseas, and make significant headway for the rumoured Japanese subsidiary of the Performance Centre. KUSHIDA’s victory could help inspire a whole new generation of junior heavyweight wrestlers and prove that there isn’t a glass ceiling of sorts for Japanese superstars in WWE.
KUSHIDA’s tournament win could mean a lot more than just a brief wave of momentum going forward. It could not only propel 205 Live into a new era of technical mastery, but also create a ready-made Japanese superstar as WWE expands further into their market. There were high expectations for KUSHIDA ever since he first started making a name for himself in New Japan, if WWE don’t recognise him for being one of the most talented stars currently competing in the Cruiserweight division, then there’s little hope for any future stars to come out of 205 Live.
Regardless of whether KUSHIDA walks away with Devlin’s Cruiserweight championship or not remains to be seen, but we can be sure of some phenomenal light-heavyweight action coming our way over the next few weeks. Hopefully this turns out to be the spiritual sequel to the CWC and leads the way for more tournaments of the like as 2020 unfolds.
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