Why the WWE Cruiserweight Division Could Draw in New Fans

With the addition of the Cruiserweight division on WWE Raw, more fans could be drawn in due to the excitement.

Wrestling is a very niche interest. It’s not for everybody, and for most, it becomes something that even if they watched it as kids, they “grow out of it” by the time they reach adulthood. There are numerous reasons for why this happens, the biggest one being the loss of mystique when you realize the results are predetermined and the WWE superstars aren’t legitimately competing against one another.

And if someone wasn’t a fan as a kid, it’s fairly unlikely they’ll become interested in wrestling for the first time as an adult. In general, non-wrestling fans look at pro wrestling, dismiss it as fake, and that’s that. And as an outsider, if you were to turn on an episode of Raw for the first time, it’s unlikely that this opinion would change. Aside from a select few, matches on Raw usually aren’t so spectacular that they’ll draw in new fans.

But the Cruiserweight division might be able to do exactly that.

The biggest strength of the Cruiserweight Classic was the consistently excellent in-ring product. The tournament largely consisted of guys many fans had never heard of before. So while they did their best to establish characters and create a story (the best example of which being Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa), most of the matches were memorable strictly because of the wrestling. The absolutely fantastic wrestling.

And this is what the Cruiserweight division on Raw is likely to bring plenty of. It’s already off to a great start as the number one contender fatal-4-way between Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, and Rich Swann a few weeks ago blew the roof off the place. And with those guys along with numerous other signees from the CWC scheduled to appear on a consistent basis, there will be at least one or two matches every week that will make your jaw drop solely because of what happens in the ring.

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For those of us who have been wrestling fans forever, we know matches are made better by the storytelling leading up to it. But for someone who has never been interested in wrestling before, they won’t care as much about that. They want to know how wrestling matches can be interesting when they’re not actually trying to hurt each other and the result is pre-determined. Cruiserweight matches show exactly that.

The Cruiserweight division adds a lot to Raw for that reason. If someone happens to stumble across Raw during a Cruiserweight match and decides to watch for a few minutes, there’s a good chance their interest will be peaked. The fast-paced, impressive action that almost constantly occurs when those guys are in the ring has the potential to bring in tons of new fans. WWE may have stumbled upon a gold mine with their rebooted Cruserweight division. It will certainly be interesting to see if ratings go up over time thanks to this exhilarating addition to the show.

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