Weight Divisions in Wrestling

gimmick

Just thinking of this after reading the "best to never ben a world champ" thread. There was also an article about it in FSM recently, so this is a discussion to lead on from that.

The thrust of the article was basically that wresling should follow the example set by MMA in their weight divisions in order to add credibility to their feuds. It used the likes of HBK and Rey Myseterio as prime exaples of fellas who are always in and around the world title scene, but are fighting guys who are much much bigger than them. It suggested it bereak into 3 classes, cruiserwight, middleweight and heavyweight.

Now, to start this off would be a very difficult task, but they could do it in much the same was as they started the brand extension in 2002. It would also basically need all the existing titles to be stripped from their current holders and threee new titles to be introduced, probably in a tournament format.

The lightweight division would basically be your cruisers (sub 190lbs) Mysterio, Noble, Bourne, middleweight (191 - 225lbs) the likes of Jericho, Michaels, Hardys and heavyweight (226lbs+) HHH, Taker, Koslov etc.

For my money, I think this could re ignite the entire industry. You can have main event level stars at 3 different divisions, you can keep feuds fresh and you can add more believability into fueds as well, and not see nonsense like Myseterio Vs, say, Kane.

Of course it would mean building your rosters up something massive, and probably need the flagship shows to have more jobber squash matches, rather than PPV quality matches every week.

Thoughts?????

chopperbyrne

I like the idea of weight classes, but where does that leave tag-team wrestling?

Will that too be seperated into weight classes?

The idea has merit, but in execution I don't think it would work.

Pro wrestling has always been about the larger than life feuds, the David and Goliath stuff.

As much as I disliked Mysterios title run, Pro Wrestling needs these kinds of matches (just not a guy considerably smaller than me holding a heavyweight title!).

Bubs101

gimmick wrote: »

For my money, I think this could re ignite the entire industry. You can have main event level stars at 3 different divisions, you can keep feuds fresh and you can add more believability into fueds as well, and not see nonsense like Myseterio Vs, say, Kane.

I don't see how it would have long term durability tbh because you'd have a very limited amount of people in top divisions. Secondly, I really doubt you'd create a cruiserweight star bar Mysterio and you'd just hold new talent back because there'd be such a concentration of established names at the weight classes that it'd be so difficult for new talent to break through.

gimmick

But isn't that exactly how it is at present? The same names top the card at all times.

I just think this way, not that it will ever happen, or even be considered, it gives the oppurtunity to make new stars.

OrtonViper

This would never work. There already isn't enough match idea's so then you try and take away the posibity of a Taker/Jericho feud or a Jericho/Mysterio

Bubs101

gimmick wrote: »

But isn't that exactly how it is at present? The same names top the card at all times.

I just think this way, not that it will ever happen, or even be considered, it gives the oppurtunity to make new stars.

It's exactly the opposite in my book. You won't make any new stars with a Cruiserweight division. It'll just be Rey trying to make it good. After that you have the next division where Edge, Orton, Jericho, HBK etc would be. What kind of new wrestler could break through that calibre of people with onky one brand. Nobody. Thirdly, you'd have an absolutely abysmal super heavyweight division with only a few potential good matches which would be pointless. You'd just end up bottlenecking all of your top stars in the one division

callaway92

OrtonViper wrote: »

This would never work. There already isn't enough match idea's so then you try and take away the posibity of a Taker/Jericho feud or a Jericho/Mysterio

+1000000

Fozzy

I don't think that it would be a good idea. It would be restrictive. At the moment wrestling has one over on MMA in that anyone can fight anyone. I know that sometimes it can seem ridiculous, but when done well a big man vs small man match can look believable and be good

I remember reading an article a year or so ago that took this idea and went further with it, just for the sake of discussion. It proposed that wrestling take more from what makes MMA successful, such as stars only fighting three or four times a year and TV shows being used to build up fighters in ways other than showing matches. I didn't like the ideas because it was all taking away from what makes wrestling special

In a sense, there's already been weight classes in wrestling, the cruiserweight and heavyweight. I know that the cruisers have never been taken seriously in WWE, but they have in other promotions. Yet no matter how important the cruisers are made to seem, the fans always care about the heavyweight title more. Part of that might just be tradition but I think the main thing is that fans will care more about who they perceive to be the best. In WWE, the middle division would contain the most talent, and that's the division that people will care most about. That would in effect de-elevate a guy like Undertaker, who would be competing in a less prestigious division

One upside of it though would be more comedy skits based on weight cutting/gaining. They're often entertaining :pac:

rossie1977

225lb is one big middleweight, that slightly over 16 stone, i would be classed as middleweight in boxing and i weigh 170ish, cruiserweight is heavier than middleweight

in boxing floyd mayweather boxed at light middleweight then dropped down a bit, even someone like matt hardy who isn't big by wwe standards is as big as a heavyweight boxer like evander holyfield.

everyone 200lb or over should be classed as heavyweight imo, there isn't that many guys on the wwe roster 300lb or over legit; show, khali, kane (just), umaga, mark henry, taker is about 260lb even though he is billed at 300lb.

callaway92

over 195lb in boxing is Heavyweight..Over 205lb in MMA is Heavyweight..Unless I am in the wrong categories :cool:

rossie1977

callaway92 wrote: »

over 195lb in boxing is Heavyweight..Over 205lb in MMA is Heavyweight..Unless I am in the wrong categories :cool:

its 200lb or over in boxing now but many of the great heavyweight boxing champions in the past weighed far less than 200lb, rocky marciano e.g. never weighed more than 192lb in the ring