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