205 Live

[King Patrick Star]

STAMFORD, Conn.,– A one-hour, in-ring program, 205 Live, showcasing WWE’s new Cruiserweight Division, will premiere Tuesday, November 29 at 10pm ET exclusively on WWE Network. The live weekly show will be called by Mauro Ranallo, the voice of SmackDown Live®, and Corey Graves, color commentator for Monday Night Raw®.

Coming off the success of WWE Network’s recent Cruiserweight Classic tournament and the formation of the new Cruiserweight Division, which airs exclusively on Monday Night Raw, 205 Live will feature Superstars that are 205 lbs. and under, including new Cruiserweight Champion Brian Kendrick™, as well as TJ Perkins™, Rich Swann™, Noam Dar, HoHo Lun™, Cedric Alexander™, Lince Dorado™, Gran Metallik™, Tozawa™, Jack Gallagher™, Gurv Sihra™ and Harv Sihra™.

“205 Live is a natural progression to showcase the depth of our roster,” said Paul “Triple H®” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative. “With world-class talent such as Brian Kendrick, TJ Perkins, and Rich Swann, 205 Live will be a must-see program on WWE Network.”

“With the addition of 205 Live to an already robust programming schedule, WWE continues to enhance the value of WWE Network for our subscribers,” said Michelle Wilson, WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer. “We take pride in listening to our fans and delivering even more live, premium content that they are asking for.”

Now my questions are:
Will the Cruiserweight Division be removed from Raw??
What will happen to Talking Smack??
Where are the T.J. Perkins side plates!?

 

[Navi]

I only have to assume that they will come off RAW because what's the point of having the same two matches, two nights apart. This will either keep the division going or be the death of it completely.

Even though RAW is a 3 hour show, they can't for some reason showcase these guys properly, so give them their own show on the network and let it sink or swim. As for Perkins side plates, either that's an old picture of the belt, or they were in the middle of installing Kendrick's since he's the champ now.

In any case this just highlight's the problems that RAW is having be not even being able to put this division on their show properly. A three hour show that is viewed by some as being the worst of the two. Even though the brands have been split, we're seeing the same matches each week, and lot's of guys still aren't getting and TV time.

Also if you go to a SD live taping, don't you already get to see Main Event. Now you get that plus SD Live and the cruiserweight show. Not bad for the price of a ticket, and definitely worth it over a RAW ticket.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I just read about this myself. The biggest question I have is what happens to Talking Smack? In my opinion, it's too damn interesting of a talk show to just let go by the wayside. However, seeing as how they're now going to start doing a similar show after Raw, maybe it's all part of some angle.

Giving the cruiserweights their own show could be interesting. I don't know if this means that the cruiserweights will no longer be part of Raw or what, maybe the 205 Live thing is part of moving the cruiserweights to being a joint brand venture since Mauro Ranallo & Corey Graves are doing commentary, which is a very nice plus in my opinion, as they normally work for different brands. Personally, I have more faith in the overall decisions and booking made for the blue brand than Raw, so if this also is able to focus on the personalities of the cruiserweights themselves, then all the better. There's a lot of untapped potential, Kendrick is really the only one with a set persona right now but there's already a lot of fans into Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann for their athleticism and the sheer energy they bring.

Oh, as to the side plates of the title while Perkins was champ, he never received any custom plates. I always sorta kept an eye on that and they simply stuck with the default side plates, which in & of itself didn't strike me as a positive sign of how Vince feels towards the division.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I only have to assume that they will come off RAW because what's the point of having the same two matches, two nights apart. This will either keep the division going or be the death of it completely.

Even though RAW is a 3 hour show, they can't for some reason showcase these guys properly, so give them their own show on the network and let it sink or swim. As for Perkins side plates, either that's an old picture of the belt, or they were in the middle of installing Kendrick's since he's the champ now.

In any case this just highlight's the problems that RAW is having be not even being able to put this division on their show properly. A three hour show that is viewed by some as being the worst of the two. Even though the brands have been split, we're seeing the same matches each week, and lot's of guys still aren't getting and TV time.

Also if you go to a SD live taping, don't you already get to see Main Event. Now you get that plus SD Live and the cruiserweight show. Not bad for the price of a ticket, and definitely worth it over a RAW ticket.

I just read about this myself. The biggest question I have is what happens to Talking Smack? In my opinion, it's too damn interesting of a talk show to just let go by the wayside. However, seeing as how they're now going to start doing a similar show after Raw, maybe it's all part of some angle.

Giving the cruiserweights their own show could be interesting. I don't know if this means that the cruiserweights will no longer be part of Raw or what, maybe the 205 Live thing is part of moving the cruiserweights to being a joint brand venture since Mauro Ranallo & Corey Graves are doing commentary, which is a very nice plus in my opinion, as they normally work for different brands. Personally, I have more faith in the overall decisions and booking made for the blue brand than Raw, so if this also is able to focus on the personalities of the cruiserweights themselves, then all the better. There's a lot of untapped potential, Kendrick is really the only one with a set persona right now but there's already a lot of fans into Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann for their athleticism and the sheer energy they bring.

Oh, as to the side plates of the title while Perkins was champ, he never received any custom plates. I always sorta kept an eye on that and they simply stuck with the default side plates, which in & of itself didn't strike me as a positive sign of how Vince feels towards the division.

I believe the Cruiserweights will be removed from Raw, but like you both said, they should have been able to give them proper focus. I think the first hour of Raw could have been 205 Live, without the corny name. How about CWC, which could stand for CruiserWeight Championship?? It’s not that great, but it’s better than 205 Live.

WWE SuperStars replaced WWE Heat and is taped before Raw. WWE Main Event replaced WWE Velocity and is taped before Smackdown.

Talking Smack is moving to 11 PM, from what I’ve been told.

I actually wanted Filipino Flag side plates, because I’m Filipino-American, but if they added a TJP logo, I wouldn’t mind that either.

One day…

 

[Hyorinmaru]

This may be what the cruiserweights need to actually be able to showcase what they need.

It's not a surprise to anyone that RAW has royally screwed up the entire division so what I'm hoping is they get taken off RAW entirely and a exclusively on this new show like it should have been since the beginning. This way they can hopefully flesh out the division and use it as a type of CW developmental and the entire division moves up to Smackdown after all the kinks get worked out on the Network

 

[Shocky]

I asked Mauro on Twitter if the Cruisers will be at Smackdown, his reply was yes.

It's a step in the right direction, but ultimately will be another misfire. The assumption will be, Smackdown goes off the air, ring and arena are immediately transformed for the 205 Live show. Assuming an individual came to Smackdown, they've already sat through 3 hours of that broadcast, -and likely watched the Main Event taping. They've been sitting for three hours, and experienced the high of a Smackdown main event match (no pun intended), now you're asking the live audience to sit for another hour for a bunch of characters they have no interest in. They've likely paid for Cena, Ambrose or Styles. Hopefully they tape 205 Live before the Smackdown broadcast, even though it's not technically Live, I'll forgive them.

Ultimately the CW show should move to Full Sail University, and be apart of the Wednesday night block. I'm all for the CWs to get away from Dunn and the nightmare of over production and Kevin Dunn, but it shouldn't be an arena show. And they most certainly should not sacrifice my beloved Talking Smack.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Why not make a storyline out of this? Have the Cruiserweights get frustrated and jump ship from Steph to DB's show. They have been so uninteresting and here WWE is making a business decision and have an opportunity to make it interesting and all it amounts to is a fucking announcement. Why not have DB steal the Cruiserweights and build heat between the shows. Maybe have Strowman give some of them a beatdown on their last broadcast. Granted they will technically not be on SD but they will be competing on a show that is adjacent to SD. And on top of that, play off the fact that somehow they are taking some of Graves' time as well. Oh well, maybe this will all be taped as part of Raw.

But really who cares? Just more fucking content that I can't keep up with in the first place. The women are the ones who deserve their own brand (beside Total Divas) and show although I would hate to see them relegated to the WWE Network exclusively.

I thought putting them on Raw would be a nice addition. Since they showed up I haven't really cared. TJ Perkins is about as riveting as paste. I won't miss their existence.

 

[enviousdominous]

I'm such a casual fan these days, I swear. I was going nuts trying to figure out why the status of Talking Smack was being questioned, it took me a while to connect the dots on that one.

This is what they should have done in the first place. It's a bit silly now that they've already pretended as if the Cruiserweights could be a valid addition to Raw. They were a side-show on Raw; a distraction at their worst and comic relief at their best. There weren't any significant story lines, just "By the way, Cruiserweights!" It didn't feel any different than when the WWE introduced the Smackdown Juniors Division.

I'll be sure to watch, I think I'd appreciate the Cruiserweights more if they were on a show that is solely focused on them. I thoroughly enjoyed the Cruiserweight Classic, and I hope this show will be as good.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The WON is reporting that Talking Smack will continue to air, it'll just take place an hour later following 205 Live.

The report further states that despite 205 Live happening as par of SmackDown Live, the Cruiserweight Division will remain exclusively to Raw and that there have been rumors of the blue brand getting its own division for months.

Going by this, if accurate, it seems that Raw will still feature cruiserweight matches though, generally speaking, they're ultimately used as filler. 205 Live will also feature matches, of course, but seems to be where the cruiserweights will ultimately be given focused storylines and characters.

Wouldn't it simply make more sense to just put the division on SmackDown Live where the blue brand show itself could play a part in helping develop the storylines & characters alongside 205 Live? It just strikes me as more convenient but it's ultimately down to what God Emperor Vince wants.

 

[Khalifa]

I was actually going to make a thread on if anyone thought the Cruiserweights should get their own show two days ago. First off before I even start, why the hell do the ropes get changed to purple for these guys? It's basically saying that they are different to everyone else (which they are, but this is more in a bad way). The women don't even have their ropes changed.

Anyways, everyone was frothing on the idea of the Cruiserweights coming back at one point before they actually showed up. There was optimism that the WWE could actually pull it off this time so why not prove everyone right and give them their own show like NXT gets. Basically that's the vibe I get when the Cruiserweights come out because they don't even wrestle in the same ring colours or lighting as anyone else on the roster. You've got enough people to make an hour show, develop everyone's character and see where it goes. If it doesn't work out then the division is probably dead then and you save money on cutting heaps of people. Seriously though why not give it a try?

The only problem I see with it is that you would force superstars to Bron the cruiserweight show that could be on the main roster or you could put someone on the main roster and everyone wanted them on he cruiserweight roster to start off with. Apart from that you get a good gauge on if people will actually give the cruiserweight division another try.

 

[OYDK]

Now my questions are:
Will the Cruiserweight Division be removed from Raw??

It should be. WWE has done such a piss-poor job of introducing these guys and the division that it's already being treated like the filler/piss breaks that used to be reserved for the women, and that's only what, a couple months into the experiment? As expected, Raw never treated this division seriously and it's showing greatly.

What will happen to Talking Smack?

Doubt they get rid of Talking Smack as it's been a complete hit since it's inception. Still though, moving it to 11 makes me think it won't be treated as seriously as it has been. I have hope in SD's creative team though so I'm not too worried.

Honestly, this should have been the plan from the start. You have an entire network for frigs sakes, you can put as much content as you want on it. Give the CW a show separate from the flagships and let the niche audience clamor for it like they did for the CW Classic. The Cruiserweights just don't seem to fit in on Raw. It's basically just throw the guys out there and let them jump around for 10-15 minutes as a side-show. Wow, who didn't see that coming?

Get the CW off of Raw and away from Vince.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

Triple H said that they were introducing 205 Live to showcase the "depth of their talent roster."

Instead of creating ANOTHER new show, why don't you showcase some of that so-called "depth" on your terrible, bland, boring, awful three our show you broadcast every Monday night.

Adding another hour of wrestling each week is completely ridiculous. They are over-saturating the market to a stupid degree. Raw is 3 hours, Smackdown is 2 hours, you have an hour of NXT, plus other shit. We don't need another hour of WWE each week. It's already boring and reptitive, adding more isn't going to help that.

Fuck.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The Cruiserweight division certainly should be removed from Raw. The WWE has done nothing to make me care about anyone in it other than TJ. I like Kendrick though more for his previous run from 8+ years ago than anything he's done in the return of the Cruiserweight division. This upcoming 205 show is a step in the right direction and I am willing to give it a chance.... If anything to give the other Cruiserweights a chance to develop more in their promo skills and to get showcased in matches that are NOT randomly thrown together for the sake of putting Cruiserweights on Raw. They already promote the division as a different brand anyway with the purple ropes and stuff, remove them from Raw and use this show for them. We'd have the red brand in Raw, the blue brand in Smackdown, the yellow brand in NXT, and now the purple brand in 205. Now we just need a green brand (TNA if WWE bought them?) and we'd be all set lol.... Seriously though.... Let's give this show a shot and see how it goes down. It could end up being great. I'll still watch Talking Smack regardless and it seems this show won't have much effect on Talking Smack anyway, despite the opening post's concerns on that.

 

[Jerichoholic_6]

Yeah, agree with other posters above, too much wrestling, the only show I watch somewhat consisently for the whole show now is smackdown. They need the cruiserweights to fill the time on Raw because otherwise we'll keep getting longer matches that mean nothing which doesn't help anybody and more primo and epico.

I was pretty excited for the cruiserweights coming to raw but they've not been put in a position to be entertaining,
- they get put in these meaningless tag matches with one barely existent storyline over the title
- they haven't been able to bring in the two top guys from the tournament imo, tozawa and ibushi
- the main highlighted guy is TJ perkins who in my opinion is good not great and looks like a 10 year old trying to be cool in his entrance but isnt. He's outshined clearly by alexander, swann and kendrick.
- also, the thing that annoys me is why arent guys who are doing absolutely nothing like Neville and Zayn (dont know if small enough) interested in the division and being champion. If they wanted to make the title mean something why wouldn't it be prized for these guys too.
The way its going, until they provide a reason for interest for watching, the divisions going to go the same way as in the past through no fault of the talent.

 

[tomthebodz]

I'm quite looking forward to this. I think that it's a much better idea than having them on Raw when they'd get one or two matches a week. There isn't really time for them to build up decent stories through out the division. At the moment all we have is the Kendrick v Perkins rivalry.

Having a 1hr long show there is the potential to have 3 or even 4 matches and they'd be able to have more than one storyline at the time. There's plenty of talent that can be used from the CWC that we haven't seen on Raw yet. The likes of Jack Gallagher and Noam Dar are yet to be seen.

 

[King Patrick Star]

If it were up to me, and it’s not, I would have the format like this.

Raw – 3 hours
1/2 hour dedicated to commercials
1/2 hour dedicated to the special attraction (this month would be Goldber / Lesnar)
1/2 hour dedicated to the Women’s Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Tag Team Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the United States Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Universal Division

Smackdown – 3 hours
1/2 hour dedicated to commercials
1/2 hour dedicated to the special attraction (this month would be Orton / Wyatt)
1/2 hour dedicated to the Women’s Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Tag Team Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Intercontinental States Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the World Division

NXT / CWC / 205 Live – 2 hours
1/2 hour dedicated to the Women’s Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Tag Team Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the Cruiserweight Division
1/2 hour dedicated to the NXT World Division

It’s a simple yet effective formula, and gives every division time to develop. Raw Talk and Talking Smack should always be right after Raw and Smackdown, respectively, only on the WWE Network.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Hopefully the cruiserweight division will be moved exclusively to this show because it's not working. Who knew calling up 15 wrestlers with no character and name recognition all at once would be a failure? Anyways it would be best to scrap that idea and send everyone to this show.

 

[Gallops77]

I think 205 Live is going to feature more of the secondary guys in the division, as opposed to the guys feuding over the Cruiserweight Championship. It's essentially going to be a way to get guys who get thrown into a random tag match on RAW into singles matches to showcase them a little more, allow for some mic time, develop individual characters, etc so when they need new challengers for the Cruiserweight Championship, they are developed into characters that many of the fans have seen if they watch this show.

 

[ShinChan]

I guess that 205 Live will be more like Cruiserweight Classic-esque rather than the version presented at Raw.

More importantly, Triple H would be the one to handle it so I am more assured that this will be good.

I hope that 205 Live lives up to the expectations Cruiserweight Classic has generated.