Sasuke and WWF's Lightweight Division

[CheMateo]

Mentioning this match earlier made me wonder what happened between the WWF and Great Sasuke. Things seemed to be going fine and Sasuke would eventually be crowned the new WWF Lightweight Champion. But then all of a sudden next thing I know WWF has side stepped Sasuke and signed TAKA instead. Does anybody know what happened?

[Slappy]

I think it may have been a money issue. I remember reading about it in my old Power Slam magazines but they were thrown out a long time ago so unfortunately I cant confirm. I think TAKA was the right choice though, just because we got the famous Kaientai/Val Venus feud a year later.

[CheMateo]

I disagree I think it was a bad decision on their part to cut ties to Great Sasuke. Once it happened I had a bad feeling in my stomach that the division was going to flounder. WWF already botched their foray into cruiserweights earlier in the year with the poorly executed use of Luchadores from AAA. They even had a clean shaven Tajiri on the roster who had good matches but didn't give him enough tv time.

Sasuke was an ideal choice to be the WWF's Lightweight champion. By having Sasuke as champion this would have helped expose the WWF to Japan much sooner. Sasuke could bring over wrestlers from Japan and Mexico. So there could've been a flood of dynamic and exciting opponents for Sasuke to do battle with. Not to mention he is a good ring general and could've helped rookies like Aguila/Rios.

Instead they went with TAKA. Who was TAKA's main rival? Brian Christopher and Jerry Lawler. Bleh that made for very disappointing matches. Sure they brought in Kaientai which I was happy to see after witnessing the Michinoku Pro match at Barley Legal. But TAKA didn't really get a chance to have matches against them, since soon after Kaientai's debut TAKA aligned with them to feud against Val Venis.

The division never really went anywhere. TAKA just quietly lost the belt to Christian eventually. WWF could never compete with WCW when it came to Cruiserweight action. Even when WWF was on a roll WCW would still have fantastic Cruiserweight matches while WWF's paled in comparison. In fact I'd like to reminisce about some of WCW's Cruiserweights later.

[Dr.Gonzo]

I wish I had an answer to why Sasuke and WWF parted ways. But it's kind of hard to say how thing would've turned out. Part of the problem with Sasuke is that he wears a mask. I've always gotten the feeling that the WWE isn't too high on masks. They'd rather have the wrestlers face viewable. The only exception would be Rey Mysterio. Maybe Ultimo Dragon but they never really pushed him.

It could've been fun to see what Sasuke could do in the WWF. But after Sasuke left I heard that they let Victor Quinones book the Light Heavyweights. Victor was a good booker when it came to Japan, he made IWA Japan so much fun to watch in 95 to part of 96. But Victor wasn't very good when it came to Luchadors and the crusierweight style of wrestling. So that could be a major reason in why the division suffered.

WWF does seem inept when it comes to pushing wrestlers with a language barrier or dry personality. I think Hakushi could've had a better run. Just look at WCW. For all the flack they get for their mistakes they got Luchadores, who didn't speak very much English if any at all, over with the audience. Dean Malenko, a man who was dubbed a vanilla midget got a tremendous reaction when he took off the Ciclope mask to confront Chris Jericho. So maybe even with Sasuke a part of the division the WWF would have still managed to bungle it.

[Danzig22]

I have to stand up for TAKA, I remember watching an episode of Smackdown and it was Taka vs HHH and watching Trips eat a Michinoku Driver was a memorable moment. WWE are always good at "Will he really go over?" moments.