WWE CRUISERWEIGHT CLASSIC NOTES & NEWS INCLUDING NON-SPOILER FIRST ROUND MATCHES

[Big Red Machine]

Source: PWInsider

By Mike Johnson on 2016-06-24 09:00:00

WWE filmed the first four episodes of the Cruiserweight Classic last night in Winter Park, Florida. Below you will find the matches for the first round of the tournament.

WWE utilized the NXT staff and Producers to work the backstage area. I was told that from a production standpoint, everything ran smoothly with the exception of stalling 20 minutes to allow fans to get to the venue due to a accident on the I-4.

There was also a belief that tickets that were bought by secondary dealers ended up not being sold, which led to a lower than expected attendance. The show was officially sold out.

Finn Balor was backstage.

In attendance at the tournament were Teddy Hart (carrying his cat, Mr. Money), SHINE star Su Yung and Florida independent talent Chasyn Raynce.

The first round of the CWC will feature:

*Gran Metallik vs. Alejander Saez.
*Ho Ho Lun vs. Ariya Daivari.
*Cedric Alexander vs. Clement Petiot.
*Brian Kendrick vs. Raul Mendoza.
Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Damian Slater.
*TJ Perkins vs. Da Mack.
*Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali.
*Akira Tozawa vs. Kenneth Johnson.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tyson Dux.
*Drew Gulak vs. Harv Shira.
*Tony Nese vs. Anthony Bennett.
*Kota Ibushi vs. Sean Maluta.
Rich Swann vs. Jason Lee.
*Noam Dar vs. Gurv Shira.
*Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner.
*Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa.

WWE did not make the bracketing of the tournament available to the audience, so there's no telling who will be facing who in the second round.

Interestingly, no CWC merchandise sold. WWE sold NXT brand merchandise at the show.

The next CWC taping will be 7/14.

[cero2k]

those matches make it seem really obvious who they wanted to get rid off first

[KILLdozer]

Seen the spoilers . Sounds like a lot of really good shit, nonstop.

[cero2k]

Seen the spoilers . Sounds like a lot of really good shit, nonstop.

yeah, heard most matches were under 10 minutes tho, but I do expect that the next round should be great, it's gonna be like a PWG show but without the cool fans

[Big Red Machine]

Seen the spoilers . Sounds like a lot of really good shit, nonstop.

yeah, heard most matches were under 10 minutes tho, but I do expect that the next round should be great, it's gonna be like a PWG show but without the cool fans

There you go with your PWG hipster crap again.

[cero2k]

Seen the spoilers . Sounds like a lot of really good shit, nonstop.

yeah, heard most matches were under 10 minutes tho, but I do expect that the next round should be great, it's gonna be like a PWG show but without the cool fans

There you go with your PWG hipster crap again.

lol, well it's just gonna be a bunch of random matches with random people, that's pretty PWG. And yeah, PWG fans > NXT fans.

[Big Red Machine]

yeah, heard most matches were under 10 minutes tho, but I do expect that the next round should be great, it's gonna be like a PWG show but without the cool fans

There you go with your PWG hipster crap again.

lol, well it's just gonna be a bunch of random matches with random people, that's pretty PWG. And yeah, PWG fans > NXT fans.

It's not random. It's a tournament with a purpose.
And NXT fans would be better than PWG fans if they stopped this stupid singing sh*t.

[cero2k]

It's not random. It's a tournament with a purpose.
And NXT fans would be better than PWG fans if they stopped this stupid singing sh*t.

yeah, a random tournament of the most random names in the indies, not even WWE/NXT people, where the winner doesn't win anything.

but they don't stop singing, and they don't stop with the 'we are awesome' chants, and they shit on everything when WWE doesn't pamper them, and they shit on 'developmental' wrestlers that are barely learning how to wrestle. NXT fans are the worst fans today, worse than Juggalos.

[Big Red Machine]

It's not random. It's a tournament with a purpose.
And NXT fans would be better than PWG fans if they stopped this stupid singing sh*t.

yeah, a random tournament of the most random names in the indies, not even WWE/NXT people, where the winner doesn't win anything.

If you think the winner won't be getting anything, you're crazy.

but they don't stop singing, and they don't stop with the 'we are awesome' chants, and they shit on everything when WWE doesn't pamper them, and they shit on 'developmental' wrestlers that are barely learning how to wrestle. NXT fans are the worst fans today, worse than Juggalos.

When have done "we are awesome" chants? And I mean a real NXT crowd. Mania weekend doesn't count.
Who have they sh*t on the wasn't Eva Maria (who was already getting that heat from the main roster, and that's all WWE's fault for pushing her so hard when she had no training)?
They haven't sh*t on things when they don't get pampered since Brooklyn last year, and that has been just about the only time it has happened.
To say that they're worse than Juggalos is completely silly.

[cero2k]

If you think the winner won't be getting anything, you're crazy.
yeah, a trophy. that's all. If the winner was getting a contract or something, we've likely already would have heard something. It's likely gonna happen backstage, but to what they have announced, it's just a tournament for a trophy.

When have done "we are awesome" chants? And I mean a real NXT crowd. Mania weekend doesn't count.
it's been a while since i've watched NXT, but I have heard it before at full sail

Who have they sh*t on the wasn't Eva Maria (who was already getting that heat from the main roster, and that's all WWE's fault for pushing her so hard when she had no training)?
The Revival, Paul Ellering and his team, Nia Jax, The Drifter, they pretend to be smarky, but they're really not that smart

They haven't sh*t on things when they don't get pampered since Brooklyn last year, and that has been just about the only time it has happened.
ok, again, i haven't been paying that much attention to that, but to have reacted like that at least once is terrible enough.

To say that they're worse than Juggalos is completely silly.
ok, but they're far more annoying than juggalos at JCW

[Big Red Machine]

If you think the winner won't be getting anything, you're crazy.
yeah, a trophy. that's all. If the winner was getting a contract or something, we've likely already would have heard something. It's likely gonna happen backstage, but to what they have announced, it's just a tournament for a trophy.
Well they can't announce that it's for a contract because some people are already under various types of contracts to WWE. Also, this tournament is, in a way, aimed at internet smarks, and they assume that if they say that the winner gets a contract we'll all think there is no chance of a guy like Kota winning because he's said he still wants to do stuff with DDT.


When have done "we are awesome" chants? And I mean a real NXT crowd. Mania weekend doesn't count.
it's been a while since i've watched NXT, but I have heard it before at full sail
It was isolated. They are much better than what you get at PWG or the ROH crowd in Milwaukee where they try to be funny or part of the show.

Who have they sh*t on the wasn't Eva Maria (who was already getting that heat from the main roster, and that's all WWE's fault for pushing her so hard when she had no training)?
The Revival, Paul Ellering and his team, Nia Jax, The Drifter, they pretend to be smarky, but they're really not that smart
They didn't sh*t on Revival of being bad workers. No one has done that. They made fun of the Revival because no one can tell them apart, and that's WWE's fault for not differentiating them more in their promos.
I have yet to see them mock the Authors of Pain for being bad workers, it happened to Nia MAYBE once, and it wasn't a large part of the crowd, and they don't bury the Drifter for his work. They bury him for being annoying. The "DRIFT AWAY!" chants are no different than the old "Bo LEAVE!" chants.
If there is any crowd in wrestling that is smarky in the "right" way, it's the NXT crowd. They're the ones who have embraced stupid gimmicks like the Vaudevillains and Mojo Rawley, and Bull Dempsey just because they are babyfaces, and they only cheer heels when the heel is both an excellent worker, has been portrayed as a total badass, and also hasn't really done anything heinous. The sort of person who SHOULD be cheered save for the fact that he or she has a bad attitude, which is something that wrestling has been telling us we should cheer since Austin turned babyface at WrestleMania XIII. The only possible except to this has been Sasha Banks, but she only really started to get major cheers once the speculation started that she was about to get called up so they knew they wouldn't get to see her live anymore.
Compare that to the PWG crowd where they cheer heels for doing dickish things (a good portion of the ROH crowd does this one, too, when Cole or the Bucks are involved), or just trying to be funny to get themselves over or chanting for Dave Meltzer in the crowd (who has acknowledged that he really doesn't like it when that happens because he feels he is taking away from the show), or chanting "BOTH/ALL THESE GUYS!" because they're have to show that they're so smarky they appreciate everyone instead of doing what you would do if this was a real sport and just picking someone to root for. You know what the wrong way to be a smarky crowd is? To find out about some inside rib the wrestlers did about a guy's boots and turn that into a chant. There's no reason for that other than to prove how much of "insider" you are.

They haven't sh*t on things when they don't get pampered since Brooklyn last year, and that has been just about the only time it has happened.
ok, again, i haven't been paying that much attention to that, but to have reacted like that at least once is terrible enough.
You really don't think the same thing would happen at PWG if they announced that the next show was going to be in Chicago instead? Yes, it was wrong of them, but understand that they were unhappy because they had just been screwed out of seeing Balor win the title when they had been supporting him for so long simply because Brock wanted to go to Japan so Vince decided to make a Network special out of it, and now not only were they not getting the rematch, but they weren't going to get to see BAYLEY, some who THEY made what she is (along with her own hard work in getting the character over, obviously), win the women's title. THEY had supported this for so long and got it to where it was, but now they were having the big moment taken away from them in favor of the greater glitz and glamour and more money and bigger buildings in the north. It's the same thing that happened with Starrcade 1987, and that pissed the Crockett fans off, too.