I agree but I don’t think it would be any worse than it is now. I think if they made the change and started to deliver even marginally better shows, the word would spread and people would begin to show up early. Personally, I would definitely make a point to show up an hour early for 205 Live rather than stick around after 2 hours of SD. Early crowds, even half-full, are usually hotter and the 205 style is great for an early crowd.
I wouldn’t have a clue. I don’t watch 205 live. Never have. Don’t feel the need. John and Wai covering it after Rewind a Smackdown is enough for me.
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Biggest problem is the roster is razor thin and the feuds drag on far too long. Seems like 8 guy have had matches together every show and the only time the formula is changed up is when someone gets hurt.
Different things to give it that sports feel, which I think is what helped the CWC originally.
So a ranking system where every match just isn’t a match put on for no good reason.
I guess this is also based on my love for John’s G1 podcasts, but a round robin tournament with one or two matches on Raw, 205Live and Smackdown each week could be something. Have the 205 Live roster members, maybe 2 from NXT, 2 from Raw and 2 from Smackdown.
On top of all this, I’d have every member of the WWE roster legitimately 205 and under be able to compete for the title or on the show, no matter where they are on the roster. It could also be good to have feature matches with Sami Zayn vs AJ Styles on 205 Live.
Seems rather difficult to keep a scoring system when the season will never officially end.
The one thing I always found odd about the cruiserweight division was how many of the main roster could easily make that weight limit (i.e. Finn Balor) who have no interest in that belt. The fact that not all 205 and under superstars are treated equally makes it obvious that the 205 is a minor league. 9 months ago I would have said put the belt on Finn Balor to get people interested in 205, but at this point that would just finish off Finn.
I would incorporate the cruiserweights into NXT/Raw/Smackdown and just get rid of the 205 Live concept. The cruiserweights are never going to be allowed to go all out in the manner of the Cruiserweight Classic, which defeats the purpose of having the division in the first place. Also, when AJ Styles on Smackdown, Finn Balor on Raw and Gargano, Almas etc in NXT are considered as ‘heavyweights’ and have more athletic matches than the 205 Live, I really find it difficult to make time for 205 Live.
If 205 Live ‘has’ to be kept as a concept I would have it live before Raw or Smackdown as part of the pre-show instead of taping Main Event or whatever it is that they tape before Raw and/or Smackdown.
Another option would be to get rid of the live concept altogether, pre-tape the matches before NXT or Smackdown and show it on the Network on Friday as ‘Friday Night Fight and Flight’ or some other terrible name. At least then Kevin Dunne could pump in some crowd noise. This is a really terrible idea, so is probably more likely than my other (terrible) ideas.
Letting those guys “go all out” only ensures that they have short careers. You can do that shit on small shows because most of those guys only work a select few days out of the month. They’re not working a WWE schedule. …that’d be like being a touring brand doing all hardcore shit…oh wait…ECW did that, and a large percentage of that roster are dead.
I’d be all for the likes of Balor and Woods joining the division if it weren’t for the fact that the show and it’s roster is kept totally separate from the others. If they made it viable for cruisers to challenge for other titles, then it’d be fine, but we have a roster made entirely of smaller, faster guys that the large majority of the audience doesn’t know well and can only challenge for one title that was created specifically for them… so what’s the point in caring?
If they were a SmackDown exclusive group it might work better. Especially because SmackDown has always been the more wrestling heavy show, whereas RAW the sports entertainment led brand. So you have the cruiserweights, the heavyweights and you rebrand the US title the middleweight title; you have an overlap in the weight divisions so that heavier or lighter guys in each division can move up or down when they want to and you conduct in like a league, with a start and end date. Make wins and losses count. Not only does it serve to incorporate the cruisers into the show more and help us get to know them better, it gives SDL a different flavour to RAW…
It won’t happen but I think it’d be a cool way to do things.
Why they decided to make 205Live a touring brand with RAW and SDL is beyond me; it should’ve set up shop with NXT at Full Sail and they could’ve had a rotating touring schedule so one months tapings in Full Sail are NXT, the next is 205, and they swap months taping outside of the studio they have set up there. I think that would’ve worked much better because it’s giving the audience the choice to watch them and make a big deal out of them, rather than just expecting them to care because WWE.
Sorry, by ‘going all out’ I meant allowing the 205 Live to have matches that don’t consist mainly of headlocks and ground based attacks which are indistinguishable from the main roster heavyweights. AJ Styles is 40 and is not killing himself and is having really good matches with lots of high risk spots and he is working as heavy schedule as anyone in the company.
Most of the 205 Live roster could have way more exciting matches without having to take lots of unnecessary punishment. Much of the 205 Live crew are not working a full time WWE schedule like the main roster, so it isn’t really too much to ask to give the roster a bit more freedom in terms of laying out their matches.
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