It was just one year ago that the Smackdown cruierweight division appeared to be on the verge of being taken seriously. Here is the Torch story on Rey Mysterio's Cruiserweight Title win in the main event spot on Smackdown. Then consider how far the division has sunk in the year since.

Torch Newsletter Archive
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Headline: Rey wins Cruiserweight Title in first TV main event for belt
Originally published: Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #762
Cover dated: June 14, 2003

Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy on the June 5 Smackdown to capture the Cruiserweight Title. On the surface, it doesn't appear to be a major news item. After all, titles change hands on TV all the time. This title change was more newsworthy than most because it was a first. It was the first time the Cruiserweight Title had been the main event of either Raw or Smackdown.

For years, the cruiserweight or light-heavyweight division has been treated with about the same level prestige as a midget match. The title and the wrestlers fighting for it were seen as "novelty acts," but not as actual draws.

It was a self-fulfilling prophesy for those in power who were skeptical of the value of the lighter-weight high-flying division. By placing the cruiserweight title matches early on cards, it was meant as a compliment. Often the opening match is meant to get the show off to a good start, so giving that slot to cruiserweights was tantamount to a pat on the head from an adult to a child. In reality, featuring the title in opening matches and never as the main event or even near the main event pegged the title as a preliminary title. In theory, placing the cruiserweight title in the main event slot repeatedly over a period of months would generate the credibility necessary to turn the title itself and the wrestlers who fought over it into draws.

The theory was wrong. It didn't take months to turn the belt into a draw. The first time the title was placed in the main event slot, it drew a strong rating. The overall rating for Smackdown was down (3.1 Nielsen Media Research rating compared to 3.4 the week before). But the main event rating was not down. The cruiserweight title match drew a 3.6 rating, which is typical for Smackdown's main event. It gained a substantial number of viewers over the previous segment—more than most Smackdown main events do—and was well above the 2.8 rating the show began with. In fact, the jump in viewership for the cruiserweight title match was similar to the jump for Kurt Angle's return earlier in the show.

When the 3.1 rating was first released, it seemed to indicate the Cruiserweight Main Event Experiment had been a failure. Those who were against featuring the smaller wrestlers in the main event believed they had the ammunition they needed to justify not trying that again. The experiment was done during one of the least risky times of the year, as the May sweeps had just ended and the Smackdown PPV was still over a month away. If any viewership was lost, it wouldn't be a big deal since Kurt Angle earlier would have helped carry the bulk of the show. As it turned out, Mysterio's victory over Matt Hardy did as well as Angle did in terms of bringing viewers to the show.

The announcers during Smackdown also treated the Cruiserweight Title differently than anyone in WWE had previously. They talked about the title as if it were a major title. They talked about the history of the title, including mentioning other cruiserweight champs in the past such as Dean Malenko, Jushin Liger, and Ultimo Dragon. They presented the title match as a major attraction, not something just thrown out there to fill time before something more important happened. The show ended, not with a follow–up to the Vince McMahon-Zach Gowen-Mr. America storyline or the Kurt Angle return, but with Rey Mysterio celebrating in center-ring with his family after winning the title.

The success—or more so just the lack of failure—of the Cruiserweight Title match in that main event slot gives its boosters some valuable evidence to push for more of the same. With Rey Mysterio as the most marketable champion WWE could ask for and with Ultimo Dragon set up as an ideal opponent to showcase the in–ring attributes of the division at its best, the belt is in a good position to become a legitimate draw itself.

Had WWE not switched to doing brand-exclusive PPVs, WWE officials may not have felt the need to attempt to focus on the Cruiserweight Title. But with the July PPV just over a month away, they can't rely on four or five Raw matches to help pad the card. So they looked within and found a perfect solution to the empty undercard. The next step to cementing the Cruiserweight Title as a draw would be to place it in one of the top two matches on the PPV.

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