Kevin Sullivan Reveals Origin Of WCW Cruiserweight Title

During a recent episode of "Tuesday With The Taskmaster," Kevin Sullivan revealed why he introduced the Cruiserweight Championship in WCW.

"I was the guy that came up with cruiserweight the name because I'm a boxing fan," Sullivan said. "And I didn't like junior heavyweight. I made Eddie the Cruiserweight and the U.S. Champion at the same time, meaning people would understand that a cruiserweight could wrestle heavyweight. Then, in Bob Mould's book, he says this. The following week after Benoit was going to win, Saturn and Dean Melanko were going to win the tag belts."

Sullivan explained, "I went to Chris and I said, 'Chris, you've worked very hard. I believe in you. I'm going to get Sid [Vicious] to drop the belt. But, this thing about size. When you do drop the belt, you're gonna drop it in a competitive match against Kevin Nash.' He said, 'Why Nash?' I said, 'Because you beat a seven-foot guy Sid, and you're gonna beat another seven-foot guy. You're gonna be the giant killer. You can have more matches with Nash and switch the belt than anything else.'

Sullivan went on to explain how he brought both Sid and Benoit in to discuss it. He asked Sid to do the favor for Benoit, but Sid didn't want to put a five-six, 205-pound guy over. Sullivan had to ask again and Sid agreed to do it before they settled on Sid's foot being under the rope when the ref counted three.

The WCW Cruiserweight Championship became the WWE Cruiserweight title until its retirement in 2007. WWE then revived the cruiserweight division with a new championship from 2016 until the start of 2022. It was retired again after being unified with the "NXT" North American Championship.

​​If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Tuesday With The Taskmaster" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.