Starting on January 30, 2018 the WWE held a Cruiserweight Championship tournament to determine a new champion. The final match took place during the pre-show for WrestleMania 34 between Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali which Alexander came out victorious.
History[]
After previous WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore was released from WWE on January 23, 2018, and the title was vacated, it was announced that a general manager would be appointed for 205 Live and would address the championship; 205 Live was previously controlled by the Raw General Manager as 205 Live is part of the Raw brand. On the January 30 episode of 205 Live, Drake Maverick (formerly known as Rockstar Spud in Impact Wrestling) was appointed as the 205 Live General Manager. Maverick announced that there would be a 16-man single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, with the finals to occur at WrestleMania 34. The tournament began that episode with Cedric Alexander and TJP advancing to the quarterfinals by defeating Gran Metalik and Tyler Bate, respectively. Over the next couple of weeks, Kalisto, Roderick Strong, Mark Andrews, Drew Gulak, Buddy Murphy, and Mustafa Ali also advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Lince Dorado, Hideo Itami, Akira Tozawa, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher, respectively. The first two quarterfinal matches occurred on the February 27 episode with Alexander and Strong advancing to the semifinals by defeating TJP and Kalisto, respectively. The final two quarterfinal matches took place on the March 6 episode where Gulak and Ali defeated Andrews and Murphy in their respective matches. The semifinal matches took place on the March 13 and March 20 episodes where Alexander and Ali defeated Strong and Gulak in their respective matches. The final match took place during the pre-show for WrestleMania 34 between Alexander and Ali.
Bracket[]
| First Round 205 Live (1/30/18, 2/6/18, 2/13/18, 2/20/18) |
Quarterfinals 205 Live (2/27/18, 3/6/18) |
Semifinals 205 Live (3/13/18,) |
Final WrestleMania 34 | |||||||||||
| Cedric Alexander | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Gran Metalik | 9:27 | |||||||||||||
| Cedric Alexander | Pin | |||||||||||||
| TJP | 17:21 | |||||||||||||
| Tyler Bate | Pin | |||||||||||||
| TJP | 14:31 | |||||||||||||
| Cedric Alexander | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Roderick Strong | 14:54 | |||||||||||||
| Kalisto | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Lince Dorado | 11:37 | |||||||||||||
| Kalisto | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Roderick Strong | 11:39 | |||||||||||||
| Hideo Itami | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Roderick Strong | 17:04 | |||||||||||||
| Cedric Alexander | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Mustafa Ali | 12:20 | |||||||||||||
| Mark Andrews | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Akira Tozawa | 12:28 | |||||||||||||
| Mark Andrews | Sub | |||||||||||||
| Drew Gulak | 12:10 | |||||||||||||
| Tony Nese | Sub | |||||||||||||
| Drew Gulak | 16:10 | |||||||||||||
| Drew Gulak | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Mustafa Ali | 15:13 | |||||||||||||
| Mustafa Ali | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Jack Gallagher | 17:08 | |||||||||||||
| Mustafa Ali | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Buddy Murphy | 11:05 | |||||||||||||
| Ariya Daivari | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Buddy Murphy | 7:46 | |||||||||||||
References[]
- 205 Live - January 30, 2018
- 205 Live - February 6, 2018
- 205 Live - February 13, 2018
- 205 Live - February 20, 2018
- 205 Live - February 27, 2018
- 205 Live - March 6, 2018
- 205 Live - March 13, 2018
- 205 Live - March 20, 2018
- WrestleMania 34
External links[]
[ Cruiserweight Championship Tournament at CAGEMATCH.net]
