[5] Following the introduction of the Light Heavyweight Championship in 1991 (which WCW had considered to be a separate title), a tournament was held to determine the inaugural champion.

On October 27, Brian Pillman defeated Richard Morton in the tournament final to win the title.

[6] However, when Brad Armstrong was forced to relinquish the title due to injury on September 2, 1992, it became inactive.

Then, on March 20, 1996, Shinjiro Otani defeated Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) in a decision match to win what then became known as the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.

[9] Hornswoggle had won the championship in a Cruiserweight Open at that year's The Great American Bash pay-per-view event.

The original design of the title has a blue with gold imprinting of the earth in the middle with the word world above it in the center plate that's gold squarely surrounded by the color black, It also has the word wrestling champions under the blue earth in that same way.

Helms won the championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in a Cruiserweight Open, despite originally being a member of the Raw brand; he transferred to SmackDown!

He lost it in a Cruiserweight Open at No Way Out in 2007, thirteen months later, to Chavo Guerrero Jr. Psicosis had the shortest title reign, holding it for approximately one hour.