Court Bauer Says This Was 'A Death Knell' For WWE Talent

While he currently acts as the owner and promoter of Major League Wrestling, Court Bauer once served as a writer on the WWE staff, giving him some unique insight into the process during the late '90s and early 2000s. Speaking to The Ringer, Bauer revealed there was one championship active in the company at the time that was a clear indicator that a performer's career was in trouble.

"When I was in WWE, if you were the Cruiserweight Champion, that was basically a death knell," Bauer said. "You were given a ceiling. Even if you lost the belt, you were now pigeonholed into being a cruiserweight." Bauer went on to state that this problem wasn't unique to WWE as many other promotions had to figure out how to match up performers of vastly different sizes and styles, something Bauer claims MLW does better.

WWE's Cruiserweight Championship was active from 2001 to 2007, taking its lineage from the previous WCW Cruiserweight Championship when WWE absorbed its rival. The title was held by the likes of Rey Mysterio, Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, and other less celebrated wrestlers such as Kid Kash and Nunzio. Though some holders of the title would wind up with lackluster WWE careers, that clearly wasn't the case for everyone.

The company eventually revived the Cruiserweight Championship, holding a tournament in 2016 to crown the first holder of the new title. That championship was usually defended on "205 Live," before it was moved to "WWE NXT" and was eventually combined with the WWE North American Championship last year. The second time around, the belt's holders included Enzo Amore, Brian Kendrick, and Lio Rush, to name a few, before it was unified.