Its seems more and more often that WWE’s purple brand (205Live) is overlooked by main roster officials. It seems that every month no matter what the match, the Cruiserweight Championship is always on the Kick-Off show of any PPV.
As someone who watches the Kick-Off and 205 Live I can say these matches are always entertaining and the cruiserweight roster deserve a better shout than a throw away match that happens before many people tune in, or are seated in the arena.
I recently tweeted that the Cruiserweight Championship should be defended on NXT Takeover shows, but I’m going to go one further and say NXT and 205 Live should combine into one two hour show on the WWE Network.
Since WWE brought back the Cruiserweight Championship as the prize for winning the ‘Cruiserweight Classic’, the title has had a steady decline in importance to the overall WWE product.
With the creation of 205 Live, WWE’s cruiserweight exclusive show on the network, fans thought they would get a place to see great cruiserweight matches with high-flyers and technical masters, but instead we got a show that was story and gimmick driven and was tough to take seriously.
This has recently changed with Triple H (who is also the ‘Vince McMahon’ of NXT) took over the reins of 205, and everything seems more wrestling driven and less cheap jokes and poor gimmicks. Although this has been great for 205, its done little in the eyes of Vince McMahon when booking PPV as they are never promoted to the main show.
Now, just imagine how well the NXT crowd would react to the 205 guys, or how over some of the cruiserweights could be in Full Sail, or how much of a bigger deal the NXT announce team could make the Cruiserweight Championship feel.
These all seem really simple things but remember in the world of pro-wrestling perception is reality. At the moment the Cruiserweight Title is nothing but an afterthought, in NXT it could be a strong and thought-out alternative to the NXT Championship.
While NXT has proved they can have four champions on their one hour a week show, the inclusion of 205 would not only free up an extra day of TV on the Network, you could easily make the NXT/205 show, two hours (an hour and a half without adverts) and Takeover shows are almost three hours anyway.
There is then the biggest draw in my eyes, the talent pool of both shows. The great matches that could be produced from having both rosters on one show would freshen up everything. The likes of Drew Gulak, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher, Buddy Murphy, and Tony Nise facing off against the likes of Adam Cole, Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle and Kasius Ohno.
The idea that Adam Cole facing Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight Championship at Takeover, or Velveteen Dream facing Drew Gulak for the North American Championship, or Matt Riddle vs Jack Gallagher, these are matches that could steal the show at any PPV weekend.
Obviously, I’m just using these matches as what could be if they were on the same show, this isn’t about a NXT vs 205 show, this would be a combination of the two brands going forward, which would mean all the talent mashed together.
Outside of this there are stats out there that suggest that more people watch NXT Takeover Specials than WWE PPV’s in the same weekend (it should be noted that these are the on-demand numbers and does not include viewers who watched either event live), this should be indication enough that 205 deserve a fairer shake, at least that of what NXT is getting.
As far as I can tell, making the jump from NXT to 205 is more of a down grade than a push, this isn’t because of poor talent of bad matches, it’s purely because the Cruiserweight championship gets zero love from WWE. Honestly, Buddy Murphy has been a fantastic champion and really carried 205 into 2019. It’s just unfortunate that the whole show seems like an afterthought.
The simple fact is, (as I have said) perception is reality in pro-wrestling, so if you positioned on the Kick-Off show of every PPV and you’re the champion of a third brand no one is pushing you will look like what you are doing isn’t worth watching. WWE have proved that they can’t handle a third brand (remember WWECW?!)
If 205 became a part of the NXT brand under the Triple H school of pro-wrestling there is a chance to crate more diverse main roster call-ups (lets be honest, who doesnt want to see Drew Gulak on Raw or Smackdown) and to create bigger and more over stars for the future of the business.
Do you think combining NXT and 205Live would work? Would it benefit both brands? Let me know your thoughts in te comments below or tweet me @TyboTalks
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