Royal Rumble 2019 Kickoff Show: WWE Cruiserweight Championship Fatal Fourway

[Jack-Hammer]

It was reported earlier today that Buddy Murphy will defend the CW Championship at the Royal Rumble in a fatal fourway match with the participants being winners of singles matches that will be broadcast on 205 Live over the next two weeks. Next week's show will see:

Kalisto vs. Lio Rush
Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak

In two weeks:

Cedric Alexander vs. Hideo Itami

As is usually the case with Cruiserweight Championship matches, this match will probably wind up being b umped to the kickoff show. I ultimately see Murphy retaining the title and it wouldn't surprise me to see him face off against Mustafa Ali at WrestleMania in which Ali finally captures the title. While Ali is officially part of the SD roster, nothing's been said about him not also being able to appear on 205 Live sometimes; 205 Live is taped before SD each week anyway, so it's not as though it'll be any sort of scheduling hardship for Ali. Since WWE is in a "new era", it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Cruiserweight Division gets more exposure via some of the wrestlers appearing on SmackDown sometimes. Lucha House Party has been appearing on Raw, so this is certainly possible.

If Ali is completely out of the Cruiserweight Division, then I'm not all that sure where they go unless they bring in new guys or just put the title back on Cedric Alexander at the Royal Rumble or later on at WrestleMania. To me, that feels like a step backwards for Alexander as he's done as much and gone as far as he can as Cruiserweight Champion already if the plan is to keep the Cruiserweight Division bottled up in its own little pocket universe via 205 Live.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Really, who cares anyway, at this point it's either going to be a kickoff shw or is going to get stuck in between two matches that have more importance and will be use as a cool down match. Personally, i would rather have them either have they're own event on the network or get put on the NXT card because at less they would get the type of reaction they deserve because they are all great athletes. The only way i could see this not be a total flop is if Kalisto wins the title because he'S the only one the will get any type of response from the crowd. But i don't think it's time for Murphy to drop the belt yet so somehow murphy retains.