WrestleMania 34: Why The Cruiserweight Championship Match Has Me Hyped
WrestleMania 34 is full of big-name talent and high-profile matches. There’s “The Dream Match” of Shinsuke Nakamura versus AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, or the bosses Shane McMahon and a returning Daniel Bryan fighting the dastardly Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Even with all these great matches, the one I’m looking forward to the most can be found on the kickoff show: the Cruiserweight championship.
Cedric Alexander, the hard-hitting Cruiserweight Classic standout, facesthe high-flying Mustafa Ali for the vacant Cruiserweight Championship. The match is the culmination to a weeks-long tournament to determine who would lead the 205 Live brand after the previous champ Enzo Amore was released from WWE.
For Alexander, this is his match to lose. He was slated to face Amore weeks before Amore’s release, but that match was delayed and would never get rescheduled before the title was vacated. Since the start of the tournament to crown a new champion, Alexander has looked strong in all of his matches, and he easily secured his spot in the finals.
In the other corner, Mustafa Ali has been slowly gaining the approval of the WWE Universe thanks to his daring moves and show-stopping finisher. His fiery promos on 205 Live and social media have also gained him additional support. Ali hit a few speed bumps on his path to the finals, but managed to come out on top each time.
The two Cruiserweights will finally meet in the ring during the WrestleMania 34 Kickoff show, which starts at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Along with the Cruiserweight Championship match, the Kickoff show will include the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal and the first-ever WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal.
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Some may feel the Cruiserweight Championship match doesn’t seem as important as other matches because of its location on the Kickoff show. As 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick says in the video above, it doesn’t matter because the match will be the one people are talking about at the end of the night. “You will all say ‘I was there.’” Maverick passionately said on last week’s 205 Live. “‘I was there and saw a new Cruiserweight Champion crowned at WrestleMania. And that, that, was my WrestleMania moment.’”
This match will feature huge moves, impressive shows of strength and agility and two performers looking to prove to they are the best Cruiserweight in WWE. It’s fine to come for the big names like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and (possibly) The Undertaker, but make sure you show up early to see this bout. I bet you’ll walk away as a fan of one or both of these wrestlers after their performance Sunday.
The WrestleMania 34 Kickoff Show airs at 5:00 p.m. EDT on the WWE Network. Even if you aren’t a WWE Network subscriber, the Kickoff show will be available to watch for free on WWE.com, the WWE app, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. So there’s no reason to miss what I think could be the best match of the night.
So what do you think? Are you excited to watch a new Cruiserweight champion be crowned at WrestleMania 34? What match are you most looking forward to this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.