Kota Ibushi & Tajiri among those named for WWE Cruiserweight Classic

WWE announced the complete lineup for this summer’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament with some expected names and some surprises.

The only major star not previously talked about is Gran Metalik (believed to be Mascara Dorada) which is a major coup considering he’s a CMLL wrestler and with the CMLL/New Japan/ROH alliance, it becomes an interesting move on his part.

The biggest names involved include Kota Ibushi (rumored from the start) who has been taking it easy in Japan since his return after a serious neck injury; Tajiri (a former star in ECW and WWE), Brian Kendrick, Akira Tozawa, and Zack Sabre Jr. The latter just worked Kurt Angle Sunday night.

Originally, Andrade Cien Almas was to be the star of the tournament, but they’ve decided to keep him out of it and leave on the regular NXT roster.

The list:

  • Kota Ibushi
  • Gran Metalik
  • Tajiri
  • Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Noam Dar
  • Cedric Alexander (expected once he announced he was leaving ROH)
  • Da Mack – A German wrestler
  • Tony Nese – Evolve talent that qualified at Saturday’s iPPV
  • Zumbi – A Brazilian wrestler who had been working for Elite Lucha Libre but had kind of disappeared
  • Clement Petout – A bodybuilder from France
  • Fabian Aichner – A bodybuilder from Italy
  • Harv Sihra – One of the Bollywood Boyz tag team from British Columbia and half of the GFW tag team champions
  • Gurv Sihra – The other half of the Bollywood Boyz tag team and brother of Harv
  • Rich Swann – Anounced even though he’s been out of action with a shoulder injury but has apparently healed up
  • Brian Kendrick
  • Akira Tozawa – One of the top stars in the Dragon Gate promotion
  • Jack Gallagher – a U.K. wrestler
  • Johnny Gargano – a regular in NXT
  • Tommaso Ciampa – another regular in NXT
  • Ho Ho Lin – A small wrestler from Hong Kong
  • TJ Perkins – The former Manik from TNA who was recently cut by that promotion and works for Evolve as TJP
  • Anthony Bennett – A New Jersey independent wrestler
  • Drew Gulak – A top independent star that works in Evolve
  • Tyson Dux – The veteran Canadian independent star
  • Lince Dorado – Masked Florida independent wrestler that works in Evolve
  • Sean Maluta – the nephew of Afa Anoa’i, related to a number of current WWE stars
  • Raul Mendoza – Known as Jinzo in Mexico from the DTU promotion
  • Kenneth Johnson – a  Detroit based independent wrestler
  • Alejandro Saez – A wrestler from Chile who is known as XL
  • Damien Slater -An Australian based independent wrestler
  • Jason Lee – Japanese talent
  • Arya Daivari – The younger brother of Shawn Daivari, the former WWE talent