Who Is The Current WWE Cruiserweight Champion?

The current WWE Cruiserweight Champion is Drew Gulak. He defeated Tony Nese at WWE Money in the Bank 2019 to win the title.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is one of two contemporary championships for WWE’s cruiserweight division, along with the WWE Network-exclusive WWE United Kingdom Championship. The current champion is “The Man of the Hour” Lio Rush, who is in his first reign.

Current WWE Cruiserweight Champion

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is currently one of two exclusive championships for the SmackDown brand, along with the WWE Championship, and it is contested for by cruiserweight wrestlers, weighing a maximum of 205 lb.

The title was established as the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on June 14, 1991, but was deactivated in August 2001 when WCW was sold to the Vince McMahon-owned WWE. The title was then relaunched as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship in September 2016 as part of WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament and its cruiserweight division known as 205 Live. The inaugural champion was T.J. Perkins.

As of November 2019, there have been seven reigns between six champions and one vacant period. Perkins has the longest combined reign at 308 days and Akira Tozawa has the longest single reign at 205 days. Tozawa holds the record for most defenses with eleven while Brian Kendrick has the fewest defenses with one during his lone reign. Cedric Alexander has had two separate reigns that are tied for the shortest in history at 22 days each; Perkins also holds this record with his first reign being feeless at 21 days (due to being unable to defend it until after WrestleMania 34).

Previous WWE Cruiserweight Champions

The Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, defended on their cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live brand. It is one of WWE’s original titles dating back to the early 1990s as the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, carrying over to WWE when it was established in 2002 under its current name.

The current champion is Lio Rush, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Buddy Murphy at the 2019 Elimination Chamber event.

Previous WWE Cruiserweight Champions:
-TJ Perkins (2016–2017)
-Neville (2017)
-Enzo Amore (2017–2018)
-Cedric Alexander (2018–2019)
-Buddy Murphy (2019)
-Lio Rush (2019–present)

WWE Cruiserweight Title History

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship that was created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on July 13, 2016. The inaugural champion was TJ Perkins. As of November 2019, the current champion is Lio Rush.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2017)

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand. It is one of two championships for WWE’s cruiserweight division, along with the WWE Cruiserweight Classic trophy, which was also introduced in 2016. The inaugural champion was T.J. Perkins, who won the Cruiserweight Classic tournament on September 14, 2016. The current champion is Akira Tozawa, who is in his first reign.

The title was established as a part of the cruiserweight division on September 5, 2016, when then-WWE Universal Champion Finn Bálor vacated the title due to injury. It was later unveiled at the Cruiserweight Classic finals on September 14, 2016, where T.J. Perkins defeated Gran Metalik to become the inaugural champion.

In order to be eligible to compete for the title, wrestlers must weigh 205 lb (93 kg) or less.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2016)

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is contested exclusively among cruiserweight wrestlers, weighing a maximum of 205 lb (93 kg). The title was originally established as the Cruiserweight Championship of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1991. WWE has intermittently recognized WCW’s lineage of the title since 2016, with TJP being the current champion in his first reign.

The championship was created to be vying for by wrestlers 175 lb (79 kg) and under (the “cruiserweight” weight limit), which in professional wrestling is also referred to as junior heavyweight. The inaugural champion was Japanese wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger. During its history, the title has been competed for in numerous promotions including WCW, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Wrestling Council (WWC), World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Ring of Honor (ROH) and DragonGate.

Since December 2016, when WWE re-established the championship under their exclusive control, it has exclusively been defended on their SmackDown brand division following their acquisition of certain aspects of ECW’s successor promotion Extreme Exposé Wrestling as part of their alumni program; prior to 2017, when cruiserweights were established on Raw following the Cruiserweight Classic tournament, it was primarily defended on 205 Live—a Tuesday night show that serves as a microcosm for the division which originally began airing after SmackDown on November 29, 2016—with occasional matches on Main Event and Raw itself. Due to its lineage as WCW’s original cruiserweight title dating back to 1991 being formally recognized by WWE in 2016 while they also promote their own version of a contemporary cruiserweight division and title through 205 Live—which originally served as both a developmental territory for up-and-coming talents and home for veteran talent considered too small to compete against WWE’s regular roster at the time following its inception in October 2016—the two are often confused with each other; despite this confusion however both titles are considered active with separate rosters and champion(s).

WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2015)

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is contested exclusively by Cruiserweights, wrestlers who weigh 205 lb (93 kg) or less. The inaugural champion was Finn Bálor, who won it by defeating TJ Perkins, Rich Swann, and The Brian Kendrick in a fatal four-way elimination match at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016.

Inaugural Champion: Finn Bálor
Current Champion: The Brian Kendrick

The title was originally established as the CWC Championship in 2016 as part of the Cruiserweight Classic (CWC) tournament conducted by WWE to find the top cruiserweight wrestler in the world. It was won by TJP in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament on September 14, 2016, at CWC: Crucible. It was then renamed to its current name and deactivated when SmackDown unveiled its own version of the championship on September 20, 2016.

When WWE reinstated the championship on July 25, 2017 at Battleground with a new look and title belt design, it became exclusive to their 205 Live brand which feature Cruiserweights appearing weekly on Mondays nights after SmackDown Live on USA Network.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship Reigns

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the Raw brand. It is contested by wrestlers who weigh 205 lb (93 kg) or less. The title was originally established as the World Cruiserweight Championship by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) on March 17, 1991.

2017 WWE Cruiserweight Champions

As of June 4, 2017, the current WWE Cruiserweight Champion is Neville. He defeated Austin Aries at WWE Extreme Rules on May 4th, 2017 to become the new Cruiserweight Champion.

Neville is the 9th overall champion and the 3rd person to hold the title in 2017. The title was vacated on March 20, 2017 when Rich Swann was suspended by WWE due to an arrest for domestic violence. Neville then defeated Austin Aries in a tournament final at WrestleMania 33 on April 2nd, 2017 to become the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion.

2016 WWE Cruiserweight Champions

The following is a list of the 2016 WWE Cruiserweight Champions, with dates indicating the length of their reign:

-TJ Perkins (August 29, 2016 – present): Perkins is the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Champion, having won a tournament to crown the first champion. He defeated The Brian Kendrick in the finals.

-Rich Swann (September 11, 2016 – present): Swann won the title from TJ Perkins on the September 11 episode of Raw.

-The Brian Kendrick (October 9, 2016 – present): Kendrick defeated Rich Swann on the October 9 episode of Raw to win the title for a second time.

2015 WWE Cruiserweight Champions

The current WWE Cruiserweight Champion is Neville, who won the title from Rich Swann on the December 5, 2016 episode of Raw.

Neville is the second person to hold the title under the WWE Cruiserweight Championship banner, after Tiger Ali Singh won the WCW Cruiserweight Championship at Bash at the Beach in 1998.