WWE NXT won’t have its best cruiserweight in the title tournament

Starting with this week’s episode of WWE NXT, the Black and Gold brand will broadcast a tournament to decide the new Cruiserweight Champion. Except the brand’s best wrestler won’t be involved.

Lio Rush won the WWE NXT Cruiserweight Championship in the Fall, holding the title with grace before dropping it to rising star Angel Garza in December. Garza would later drop the championship to NXT UK’s Jordan Devlin at Worlds Collide, with the intent of having Devlin defend the title on multiple brands to raise the prestige of the promising, young championship. However, Devlin’s recent injury forced him to vacate the championship.

So now, WWE is having a Cruiserweight Championship Tournament, which has been something of a tradition, to decide the next title holder. The upcoming April 15 episode of NXT will have the first matches, as the competitors will be set into blocks with four in each block.

However, the best cruiserweight wrestler, Lio Rush, won’t be a part of it. And he had some choice words about his omission.

https://twitter.com/itsLioRush/status/1249419290190757890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1249419290190757890%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wrestlinginc.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F04%2Flio-rush-reacts-to-being-left-out-of-interim-nxt-669186%2F

I have a few guesses as to why Rush isn’t in the tournament. It’s possible he’s dealing with an injury or something else that is preventing him from competing. Or WWE may want to have people who aren’t recent winners in the tournament, as Devlin and Garza also will not be competing.

Rush would have been an overwhelming favorite, especially among fans, to win the tournament, since he’s one of the best wrestlers in WWE NXT and in the company as a whole.

Block A includes a former winner in Tony Nese, newcomer Jake Atlas, the excellent Kushida, and, um, Drake Maverick. Among those four, Kushida is the clear favorite, while Block B has an ideal tournament winner in Isaiah “Swerve” Scott.

Swerve would be an excellent choice to win, and he could face a healthy Devlin and/or Rush at a later date.

It’s tough that Rush isn’t in the tournament, but there’s definitely a reason for it. Otherwise, WWE wouldn’t have had Rush tweet about being out of the tournament. They wouldn’t leave their best cruiserweight out for nothing, especially since he’d have jaw-dropping matches in this format.

As for Maverick, the less said the better. He’s hilarious, so hopefully his early exit from the tournament will be worth a few hearty laughs.