WWE: Who are the stars of Raw's cruiserweight division?
Meet Brian Kendrick, Noam Dar, Rich Swann and TJ Perkins
Tuesday 20 September 2016 10:39, UK
The Cruiserweight division is back on WWE Raw!
The world's top wrestlers under 205lb will be in action every Monday night on Sky Sports 5, wowing fans with their high-flying antics.
When the cruiserweight title was last in operation, the division was bossed by the likes of Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero and Billy Kidman.
But now a fresh group - mostly - of superstars will look to take the cruiserweight ranks by storm, including reigning champion TJ Perkins and Scottish-Israeli star Noam Dar...
Brian Kendrick
From: Fairfax, Virginia
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 157 lbs
Age: 37
Finishing moves: Bully Choke crossface/Slice Bread #2
Kendrick says: "The 37-year-old Brian Kendrick knows the 38-year-old Brian Kendrick might not get another chance. It could be a rebirth."
Kendrick is perhaps the best known of WWE's new batch of cruiserweights - because he was part of the old batch! 'The Wizard of Odd' never won the Cruiserweight Championship but did hold the WWE Tag Team titles with Paul London for 331 days between May 2006 and April 2007, a record that stood until earlier this year when it was broken by The New Day.
Kendrick enjoyed singles success after he and London were separated in the WWE Draft - the high-flyer, who insisted on being known as The Brian Kendrick, was even interim WWE Champion during a 20-minute Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven 2008 when he pinned Jeff Hardy, only for Triple H to pin him shortly after retaining the title.
After leaving in 2009, Kendrick - who was trained by Shawn Michaels and debuted in WWE under the name Spanky in 2003 - went on to compete on the independent scene and in New Japan Pro Wrestling, although he returned to WWE in early 2015 to work at the Performance Center in Orlando and also faced off with Finn Balor on an episode of NXT.
Noam Dar
From: Ayr, Scotland via Tel Aviv Israel
Height: 5ft 9in
Weight: 178 lbs
Age: 23
Finishing move: Champagne Super Kneebar
Dar says: "Once I've got them in a submission, everyone's leg bends the same."
Scottish-Israeli superstar Dar is only in his early twenties but has been a mainstay of the British scene since kicking off his career as a teenager, winning multiple singles and tag-team titles. The current Preston City Wrestling heavyweight champion was inspired by the late Eddie Guerrero, while he has also mixed it with current WWE stars Balor and AJ Styles.
Yet, his fandom for Oasis is perhaps his most notable trait - Dar heads to the ring to the sound of Morning Glory, displays mannerisms of the often-sulky Mancunian frontman Liam Gallagher while he wrestles, and has had his finisher named after another famous Oasis track, Champagne Supernova. Dar and his "Supersonic" submission holds are coming to Raw.
Rich Swann
From: Baltimore, Maryland
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 168 lbs
Age: 25
Finishing move: Standing 450 Splash
Swann says: "I don't think people are going to be expecting what I pull out."
Swann will be a fun addition to Monday nights - the Baltimore native is an adept singer and guitar player and often turns his entrances into pseudo Karaoke nights, while he used his charisma to claim Dragon Gate's Open the Owarai Gate Championship, a title which is frequently decided via positive fan support and how funny you are as opposed to pinfalls and submissions.
Swann - whose father was murdered when he was 14 - is noted for his high-flying skills but has admitted in the past that his fear of heights led to him perfecting his trademark Standing 450 Splash because he was too jittery to do it from the top rope! NXT fans have gained a glimpse of Swann, including against Balor, and he will hope to impress on the main roster, too.
TJ Perkins
From: Los Angeles, California
Height: 5ft 10in
Weight: 167 lbs
Age: 32
Finishing move: Flying Kneebar
Perkins says: "My generation needs a representative and I'd like to be that."
Perkins - who will defend his title against Kendrick at Clash of Champions on Sunday night having downed Gran Metalik in the final of the 32-man Cruiserweight Classic to become Raw's inaugural Cruiserweight Champion - is somewhat of a baby-faced assassin.
So much so that when he started wrestling in his early teens he was forced to wear a mask as promoters thought he looked too young! Perkins also used to skip school most Fridays in order to compete in the ring and that decision paid off when, at the age of 18 years and three weeks, he became the youngest non-Japanese wrestler to perform in NJPW.
Perkins soon re-donned the mask, competing as Puma in Japan and as Suicide and Manik elsewhere, but found himself homeless for a while when he moved to Florida to pursue a WWE career. The 32-year-old found his feet and will star under his own name on Raw, giving the cruiserweight set-up an even more cosmopolitan feel due to his Filipino heritage.
Watch the cruiserweights take flight on Raw every Monday night.
