Many cruiserweight wrestlers from around the world were given the chance to qualify for the 32-man single-elimination tournament, which took place over four dates: June 23, July 13, August 26, and September 14.

On April 24 at Progress Wrestling Chapter 29, Sabre Jr., Jack Gallagher also won a qualifying match, while on May 7 at Evolve 61, T. J. Perkins and Drew Gulak also joined the series.

On June 11 at Evolve 63, Tony Nese defeated Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak, T. J. Perkins and Lince Dorado and qualified for the tournament.

The following time limits were in place: Before the final match between T. J. Perkins and Gran Metalik started, Triple H revealed that the winner of the tournament would be crowned the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion.

Also, T. J. Perkins, Gran Metalik, Akira Tozawa, Jack Gallagher, Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, Lince Dorado, Tony Nese, Mustafa Ali, Drew Gulak, Tajiri, Ariya Daivari, Rich Swann and The Bollywood Boyz signed contracts with WWE.