#TFGinterview: Daniel Bryan talks about CWC, bringing back Cruiserweight title and more
- By Ratish Menon
- July 05, 2016
WWE is making a huge revolutionary step with the Cruiserweight Classic (CWC) tournament. They have lined up 32 of the most talented cruiserweights from all over the world and are expected to blow the roof off when they hit the ring.
Former WWE World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan will serve as the color commentator for CWC and ahead of the tournament, he attended a media conference call. The Fan Garage managed to ask Bryan some questions during the conference and here is the transcript for the same.
TFG: The Cruiserweight Classic has gathered some great talent from all over the world. Can we expect this to be an annual or regular thing from WWE? Also, could we expect similar tournaments in the future?
Daniel Bryan: I can't say I know. But when Triple H had talked about it, about two weeks ago, he had mentioned that he wanted to make this an annual thing. He thinks that it's a great show for the Network to have, and I say why not? I mean it's a great concept.
As for the tournaments, I don't know what the WWE wants to do going forward, but I have been a fan of tournaments for a long time, so we will wait and see. if this thing takes off, who knows...we may see another one on RAW (laughs)
TFG: With WWE giving importance to cruiserweights in this tournament, do you think that the cruiserweight championship should be brought back?
DB: You know, that's a fascinating question because so many of the top guys now would be considered cruiserweights back when WCW had the first cruiserweight matches those many years ago. The cruiserweight championship I remember was for 225 lbs and under (102 kgs) and the Cruiserweight Classic is 205 lbs and under.
But if you look at the WWE roster today, everybody is a bit smaller because now, fans want more action which requires more mobility, which requires you to be a bit lighter.
One of the things that I think we will see is that some of these guys who are say only 160 lbs., which might be 75 kgs, they are amazing and people want to see them. So, I wouldn't be surprised, especially with the brand extension set to come, that the WWE does restart the Cruiserweight championship.
TFG: WWE had to limit the number of participants in the tournament to 32. Was there any wrestler out there that you wanted to see but didn’t make the cut?
DB: Oh my gosh. There were so many, but they did such a great job of representing all the different areas that I can say like 'Oh so and so should have been in' but then Italy wouldn't have been represented, you know what I mean?
So I think, they got 32 of the best guys to represent wrestling from all over the world. I love wrestling right, and when I sat down to know as to who all are participating in the tournament, some of the guys I had never heard of. But when I watched them perform, like Alejandro Saez from Chile, he is good, he is doing all these crazy stuff and I thought if I would have said 'Oh it should have been this guy or that guy, maybe we would have missed out on him.
So I think it will be a great opportunity for the fans to be introduced to wrestlers that they have never seen before. For e.g. Kota Ibushi, you can go on Youtube and get to see tons of stuff on him, but not on some of the other guys. So it's hard for me to say that this guy or that guy should have been there instead of him.