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Tag: cruiserweight

  • Kota Ibushi & Tajiri among those named for WWE Cruiserweight Classic

    WWE announced the complete lineup for this summer’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament with some expected names and some surprises.

    The only major star not previously talked about is Gran Metalik (believed to be Mascara Dorada) which is a major coup considering he’s a CMLL wrestler and with the CMLL/New Japan/ROH alliance, it becomes an interesting move on his part.

    The biggest names involved include Kota Ibushi (rumored from the start) who has been taking it easy in Japan since his return after a serious neck injury; Tajiri (a former star in ECW and WWE), Brian Kendrick, Akira Tozawa, and Zack Sabre Jr. The latter just worked Kurt Angle Sunday night.

    Originally, Andrade Cien Almas was to be the star of the tournament, but they’ve decided to keep him out of it and leave on the regular NXT roster.

    The list:

    • Kota Ibushi
    • Gran Metalik
    • Tajiri
    • Zack Sabre Jr.
    • Noam Dar
    • Cedric Alexander (expected once he announced he was leaving ROH)
    • Da Mack – A German wrestler
    • Tony Nese – Evolve talent that qualified at Saturday’s iPPV
    • Zumbi – A Brazilian wrestler who had been working for Elite Lucha Libre but had kind of disappeared
    • Clement Petout – A bodybuilder from France
    • Fabian Aichner – A bodybuilder from Italy
    • Harv Sihra – One of the Bollywood Boyz tag team from British Columbia and half of the GFW tag team champions
    • Gurv Sihra – The other half of the Bollywood Boyz tag team and brother of Harv
    • Rich Swann – Anounced even though he’s been out of action with a shoulder injury but has apparently healed up
    • Brian Kendrick
    • Akira Tozawa – One of the top stars in the Dragon Gate promotion
    • Jack Gallagher – a U.K. wrestler
    • Johnny Gargano – a regular in NXT
    • Tommaso Ciampa – another regular in NXT
    • Ho Ho Lin – A small wrestler from Hong Kong
    • TJ Perkins – The former Manik from TNA who was recently cut by that promotion and works for Evolve as TJP
    • Anthony Bennett – A New Jersey independent wrestler
    • Drew Gulak – A top independent star that works in Evolve
    • Tyson Dux – The veteran Canadian independent star
    • Lince Dorado – Masked Florida independent wrestler that works in Evolve
    • Sean Maluta – the nephew of Afa Anoa’i, related to a number of current WWE stars
    • Raul Mendoza – Known as Jinzo in Mexico from the DTU promotion
    • Kenneth Johnson – a  Detroit based independent wrestler
    • Alejandro Saez – A wrestler from Chile who is known as XL
    • Damien Slater -An Australian based independent wrestler
    • Jason Lee – Japanese talent
    • Arya Daivari – The younger brother of Shawn Daivari, the former WWE talent

  • WWE Global Cruiserweight matches announced for Evolve and Progress

    Today WWE announced qualifying matches for their Global Cruiserweight series.

    Announced for the Evolve show on 5/7 in Queens, NY, with Drew Gulak vs. Tracy Williams and Fred Yehi vs. TJ Perkins.  Gulak and Williams are the current Evolve tag team champions.  The show takes place at La Boom in Queens, NY and will air on iPPV at www.WWNlive.com

    Also, announced for the PROGRESS on Sunday April 24th in Camden Town, London, Zach Sabre Jr. will face Flash Morgan Webster.  Jack Gallagher will go up against “Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne.

    The names WWE has announced thus far for the tournament are Rich Swann, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Noam Dar, Akira Tozawa, Ho Ho Lun and Lince Dorado.  Swann, Ciampa and Gargano are already under contract to WWE.  Dar is an independent wrestler from the U.K., Tozawa is a star with Dragon Gate, Lun is from Hong Kong and Dorado is a Florida-based Lucha style independent wrestler.

  • Another match location revealed for WWE’s Global Cruiserweight tournament

    Following on the heels of the announcement that Progress Wrestling in the U.K. would host qualifying matches for the WWE’s summer Global cruiserweight tournament, it was confirmed the same deal is in place with Revolution Pro Wrestling.

    Revolution Pro, based out of Portsmouth, England and headed by Andy Quildan, announced the deal today on its web site and said that the dates and matches would be announced shortly.

    “What we can say right now is that it’s an honour to have been selected as one of the global partners for this tournament and we are very excited for the opportunity to share our product with fans across the globe.”

    It is believed Revolution Pro will host one qualifying match.

    Progress and Revolution Pro join Evolve in promotions that WWE is working with when it comes to a tournament that will start on the WWE Network on 7/13 and last for ten weeks, airing on Wednesday nights, and taped in Orlando at Full Sail University.

    The promotion in the past had provided footage to WWE for a video feature on the network on the career of Finn Balor.

    At a conference call several months ago, Paul Levesque specifically brought up Evolve, Revolution Pro and Progress as companies that they could be working with.

  • WWE Global Cruiserweight announcement, location set for 2 matches

    The London-based Progress Wrestling promotion has reached a deal of sorts to work with World Wrestling Entertainment with the announcement at their show today that two of the qualifying matches for the Global Cruiserweight series would take place on the 4/24 Progress show.

    Progress founder Jim Smallman made the announcement of the partnership on Sunday afternoon at the company’s show at the Electric Ballroom in north London.  His announcement confirmed a report on the Gorilla Position podcast and talkSPORT that Progress was the leading contender to have matches in the tournament.

    While no names were mentioned as participating, a story on the show listed Kent-born regular Zack Sabre Jr., Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll who are three of the top stars with the group, although noted Ospreay, who debuts in two weeks for New Japan Pro Wrestling, may not be politically able to participate while keeping his New Japan commitments.