60-man battle royal, with the winner getting a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. The battle royal was won by The Giant. In January '97 on Clash of the Champions XXXIV, Wright lost to Masa Chono, who had recently come to the U.S. and joined the nWo. Championship reigns (1997) WCW had Wright wrestle in several tag team matches with fellow midcarders, mostly on the losing side. On the May 12, 1997, edition of Nitro, Wright partnered with Ice Train against Konan and Hugh Morrus of the Dungeon of Doom, a match in which Wright openly displayed heelish behavior such as teasing the return of his dance routine that he had temporarily shelved as a babyface, and clashing with Train's manager Teddy Long during the match. This culminated in Wright claiming to be unable to continue due to a sudden unexplainable knee injury, angrily confronting Long and then abandoning Ice Train, leaving him to lose the match by submission. Wright was then pushed as a heel for the remainder of 1997, which led to his first championship gold: on the July 28 edition of Nitro, he defeated Chris Jericho to win the Cruiserweight Championship. Wright feuded with Jericho thereafter, including a successful title defense against Jericho at Road Wild, before dropping the title back to Jericho on August 16 edition of Saturday Night. However, five days later, he defeated Último Dragón on the August 21 Clash of the Champions XXXV to win the World Television Championship. Wright was able to successfully defend the TV title against Lord Steven Regal on an episode on Nitro. At Fall Brawl, Wright made a successful title defense against Último Dragón in a rematch before dropping the title to rival Disco Inferno on September 22 edition of Nitro. Wright feuded with Steve McMichael after McMichael's valet Debra left him and became Wright's valet. She ordered the feud and in the rivalry, Wright defeated McMichael at Halloween Havoc, with help from Goldberg, who promptly attacked Wright postmatch. The next month at World War 3, McMichael took out Goldberg prior to their match and Wright was literally dragged to the ring by Debra to wrestle McMichael again, and this time suffered a defeat. Wright would go on to be managed by Debra for a little while longer. Debra would often try to illegally interfere in matches to help him win, but the plan would usually backfire, causing