Way to improve 205 Live?

If 205 Live lives past 2018 I think that would be a miracle, but one thing I have thought since the beginning is that because they have a small roster with performers not “known” by the general audience, they should have instituted a point system.

Win a One-on-One or Tag Team Match - 1 point
Win a Stipulation Match - 2 points

Get to 10 Points you can cash that in for a Cruiserweight Title Match.

What does everyone think? Do you even think 205 Live can be saved?

I’m still befuddled why they can’t just have crusierweights on both rosters and the title can change hands between them via PPV.

It’s 5 HOURS between them… Cut the 22 minute promos down a bit and get some cruisers in there.

To answer your question I think it can be saved if they do something different. I like your points idea but only the hard cores would follow the totals. Maybe they could do another classic?

I felt with the points system each match “matters” so the general fan even if they don’t know much about the wrestler would have some investment in the match.

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Point systems seem to never work right in wrestling and I dont know know why, but my guess is it has to do with short notice booking changes.

That said, how bout fix 205 by scrapping the current roster and populating it with guys like Finn and Xavier Woods and even a Dolph or Uso. I’d love to see it be booked more like the Jr Hvyweeight division

MJ… agree, make it a fluid division so you don’t have to be on the “205 Live” Roster to compete. But convincing “established” guys to work the show might lead to more Neville situations

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I think if they weren’t on Raw then you’d have a reason to watch 205 Live but you see the key characters on Raw. They really don’t need their own show, they would be fine as just part of Raw.

The problem is no general fan is ever going to watch a weekly show on the Network after 5 hours of RAW and Smackdown in 2 days. Get rid of 205 all together.

Have the cruiserweight division on RAW, and let them WRESTLE like cruiserweights. Put them in a top of the hour spot for a few weeks to establish them as important instead of putting them in the 10:20 time slot of doom.

Put them in front of a crowd that just didn’t go through a smackdown episode…hold them in smaller venues too.

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They need to give fans a reason to care about the matches. They should be a fun way to break up the show, like on Nitro. Instead they’re just more midcarders. And the main eventers do high spots so it doesn’t stick out.

I do actually kind of like points systems, but the only good one I’ve ever seen is in CHIKARA (for the uninitiated, you gain one point for every tag team match you win, you cash in three points for a title match, BUT if you lose a match you lose all your points.). Other than there, they kind of get convoluted and it can sometimes be hard to follow.

I think though, it misses the reason why 205 is shit. It’s not because the matches don’t mean enough, it’s the SHOW not meaning enough - It’s basically Main Event with less people.

The writing on that show is atrocious too. Enzo and Gulak are charismatic and we get some fun out of them but otherwise the rest of the angles seem like an afterthought.

Put them in an small intamite setting like NXT, maybe Center Stage in Atlanta and also change the way the show is booked and make it about the wrestling rather than soap opera storylines.

I agree that the venue after SmackDown is rarely conducive to having a good audience for 205 Live. When I went to a taping in August, I’ll admit that I left after the first 205 match and I actually like the product some of the time.

I agree they need a better spot on RAW if anyone is going to take them seriously. I would keep them in the first hour only so you can take advantage of what is usually the biggest audience. And definitely keep the soap opera storytelling to a minimum. The Noam Dar-Alicia Fox-Cedric Alexander love triangle was excruciating last year!

It really might just come down to too much WWE programming in one week for 205 Live to ever get beyond the hardcore wrestling fans. Having these guys on RAW in order to entice people to buy the network to keep up with them is a tough sell beyond your core audience.

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I would watch the entire show if it were just an honest to goodness Gulak powerpoint presentation without interuption.

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Tape 205 Live before Smackdown. It should only be done live after SD, if they’re on the west coast

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They should tape the show before Smackdown so the crowd isn’t dead and most of them are still in the building.

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I think they do it after because they literally need to incentivize people to stick around for it with the post-show dark match. If they did it before SmackDown, they’d probably just wrestle in front of a half-full crowd tops.

The matches before Raw have a louder crowd. Even the smackdown dark match i attended was surprisingly loud for a meaningless tag.

205 Live should have been packaged together with NXT so it could be run without the Vince stank on it.

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The difference between 205 and CWC proves that there’s just no replacement for an audience that is watching the show they came to see. Best to find a smaller venue - as a matter of fact, tape those house shows that are coming up.