News

WWE Announces Cruiserweight Tournament Participants

The “Cruiserweight Eight” have been named!

Published

4 years ago

April 13, 2020

Steven Mitchell

WWE sets the field for the Cruiserweight Round Robin Tournament!

As pictured above, the WWE has its eight chosen participants for their coming Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Round Robin Tournament. And yes, it will be a round robin style tournament. This is very rare for the WWE, and is in itself an exciting opportunity for the company, the Cruiserweight Division, and the NXT and 205 Live brands. Fans familiar with New Japan Pro-Wrestling have already started relating this to a G1 Climax or Best of the Super Junior tournament, and for good reason. As all round robins go, we will see all 12 possible combinations within each block, for a total of 24 matches over the next however many weeks.

The WWE’s own article lists the superstars in Group A and Group B. In fact, it’s as the picture shows. Group A is the top row of Kushida, Drake Maverick, Tony Nese, and newly debuted Jake Atlas. Group B is the bottom row of Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, the newly signed El Hijo del Fantasma, Akira Tozawa, and Jack Gallagher. This already gives some exciting match-ups, as Fantasma makes his WWE debut in a big way. This tournament officially starts with NXT this Wednesday, and may presumably stay on NXT. There is no word on how many matches will be featured this week, so we could see all eight men in action in one night.

As for my personal take, there is one thing I’m sure we’re all wondering: Why Drake Maverick? Maverick is still 205 Live General Manager in kayfabe, but he hasn’t been seen on-screen there in weeks. This may be a sign that, with WWE being forced to go live again, there were superstars that could not be at the WWE Performance Center for the next few months. At the same time, I could see Maverick pull a Toru Yano and be more a spoiler than a contender. Maverick could be the reason Tony Nese or Jake Atlas fail to take the A Block. As for B Block, that feels like the stronger group. Gallagher’s new look and aggression, Akira Tozawa’s return to Cruiserweight competition and Fantasma with something to prove, those matches are going to be ones to watch.

But as I’ve been feeling during coverage of 205 Live, this is going to come down to Kushida and Swerve. They’re in separate blocks for a reason. I’m confident they will win their blocks and face off in the finals, but it could go either way after that. Jordan Devlin against either of them makes for a killer “undisputed Cruiserweight Championship” match. Follow The Chairshot to keep up with my full play-by-play coverage of this tournament and more this Wednesday.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!