4 Cruiserweight Champions who later became World Champions

Modified Feb 06, 2020 07:07 GMT

The Cruiserweight title was a mainstay in WCW during the 90s, and in WWE for the better part of the 2000s. The title was specifically created for wrestlers who weighed not more than 225 lbs. The first wrestler to win the title was Flyin' Bryan, who won the belt at Halloween Havoc on October 27, 1991, by defeating Richard Morton. The storied history of the belt has seen a string of future World Champions holding it.

Let's take a look at four Superstars who held both the Cruiserweight title and the World title at different points in their careers.

#4 Matt Hardy

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Hardy defeated Billy Kidman at WWE No Way Out 2003 to win the Cruiserweight title, after successfully shedding his weight to 98 kg and becoming eligible to compete for the belt. This was his only Cruiserweight title reign in WWE, which ended months later on an episode of SmackDown, where he lost to Rey Mysterio.

During his three-year stint in Impact Wrestling, Hardy won the Impact World title on two separate occasions, with the first one coming after he pinned current WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre.

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#3 Rey Mysterio

Mysterio has won the Cruiserweight title on eight different occasions, with five of those reigns coming during his WCW run. At WrestleMania 22, Mysterio defeated Kurt Angle and Randy Orton to become World Champion and is currently a three-time World Champion in WWE.

#2 Eddie Guerrero

Eddie was one of the most popular Cruiserweight stars when the division was at its peak in WCW. Eddie won the belt on two occasions in WCW.

After spending around four years in WWE's mid-card, Eddie managed to bag the WWE Championship by defeating Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004. He successfully defended the title against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 20, and later lost it to JBL at The Great American Bash 2004.

#1 Chris Jericho

A four-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion, Chris Jericho turned into a legit main eventer soon after he made his famous debut in WWE, which saw him interrupting The Rock on RAW. Jericho had an incredibly successful run in WWE and is a six-time World Champion.

Currently, he's signed to AEW and holds the promotion's World title. Jericho won the belt after defeating Hangman Page at All Out last year.

Edited by Anurag Sharma