The brand extension is seeing the return and introduction of quite a few championships. Daniel Bryan stated that Smackdown Live will be introducing a new women’s and tag team championship, which is expected to come into effect after Summerslam. The Raw brand announced the introduction of the WWE Universal Championship on the Raw after Battleground. The inaugural holder of the Universal Championship will be decided at Summerslam between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.
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A day before the draft on Raw, Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon announced that there will be the re-introduction of the cruiserweight division on Raw. It comes in a very good time, coinciding with the Cruiserweight Classic on the WWE Network, which has seen an influx of big name talents from the independents, and former Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling stars.
There was already speculation that WWE would be signing several of the talents from the Cruiserweight Classic, as it was said that Kota Ibushi and Grand Mettalik were signed with NXT. Now, there is heavy speculation as to whether WWE would be bringing over many of these signed talents directly onto Raw to fill up the Cruiserweight division and give them a pass from NXT.
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As with any superstar from any division, there must be a brass ring for which they work to achieve, and the brass ring has seemingly been discovered. According to PWInsider, the rebirth of the Cruiserweight division on Raw will also see the rebirth of the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. PWInsider reported that it has been commissioned and confirmed by multiple sources.
It has not been confirmed when the championship will be introduced, but it is being speculated that the championship belt will first be seen on the live finale of the Cruiserweight Classic on September 14th, from Full Sail University, the home to NXT tapings.
The Cruiserweight Championship was first introduced in WCW in 1991, where it was active until 2001 when WWE purchased WCW. from there the championship came to WWE, where it was active for 7 years, until 2008, after which it was discontinued. Hornswoggle was the final Cruiserweight Champion, which generally has been criticized by many fans who associated the belt with legends such as Chris Jericho, Brian Pillman, Rey Mysterio, Jushin Thunder Liger, Dean Malenko, to name a few.
It is not known yet how the cruiserweight roster will be filled up, but it is speculated that Neville will be the face of the division.
