Rich Swann is the *NEW* WWE Cruiserweight Champion

[Richard Blonoff]

Rich Swann defeated The Brian Kendrick on the debut episode of 205 Live to become the new Cruiserweight Champion.

How long do you expect him to hold the title? Was TBK's reign too short? Did you enjoy 205 Live?

I'm a big fan of Swann. The guy is still in his mid 20s and already very comfortable in the ring and in front of a camera. His team with No Way Jose during the second Dusty Classic was great in my eyes because I'm a sucker for goofy gimmicks like Jose. I hope to see him hold the title for some time, while they build the division around him. Kendrick's run was short but I think they needed it to be as Perkin's wasn't clicking with the audience and you need a face to help build the division up.

Hopefully the new show, which I enjoyed, will help the division. They were floundering on Raw and needed a kick in the pants, so hopefully a new champ on a new show is just that.

Keep it all in here folks and member the spam rules.

 

[Aquaman6686]

TERRIBLE decision. There was absolutely no reason to take the title off Kendrick. He's by far the biggest name in the Cruiserweight division and their most bankable star, they should have had him hold the title for several more months while they built up a contender to eventually take the strap from him at WrestleMania. What a complete waste.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Too early to take the belt off Kendrick. But this was the first episode of a new show and it was always going to happen, and probably should. Long term it's where we'd end up anyway. Waiting patiently until Aries gets the belt.

 

[Navi]

I think it was too early to take the title off Kendrick as well, but if they had to Swann was the guy to take it. He out of most have really stood out in this division and it was a corker of a match last night. He's really had a hard life losing both parents at a young age and it was great to see him give his mom that tribute at the end.

Actually the whole show was pretty good and with Mauro and Graves on commentary, it went pretty quickly. Maybe with their own show, we as fans will get a chance to see the guys behind this division, something RAW didn't do for them. All I know is I'll watch again next week. Aries heeling it up on commentary last night was hilarious, he's so not a commentator.

 

[enviousdominous]

I've been a fan of Rich Swann since his indy days. He's a good blend of the fun kind of goofy and insane athletic talent. It makes a lot more sense to have him carry the Cruiserweight belt, and to have him win that belt by beating Brian Kendrick.

Brian is a popular and loud enough character that he'll be able to be an effective heel without having to wrestle much.

Rich is no slouch when it comes to flawlessly performing his heart out, and now I'm hoping that the WWE will try to build one of the other competitors into a heel on par with Brian Kendrick.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

While I agree that it was too early to take the title off Kendrick, I also understand that they wanted to start 205 Live off with something to generate some buzz. In the long run, I think Swann would have ultimately captured the title anyway and this is a means of giving the Cruiserweight Division its first real, solidified, crowd invested feud. Kendrick's a good, intense heel while Swann is an energetic, personality infused babyface who's been one of the few cruiserweights featured on Raw the past few months to generate any response even without a defined story or character.

I'm not at all impressed with the Bollywood Boys; I wasn't impressed with them as singles wrestlers during the Cruiserweight Classic and I'm not impressed with them as a tag team. Aside from being from India and doing their little folk dance, they don't bring anything to the table as there are wrestlers in the division who can do everything they can but to a much greater degree.

I felt bad for Tony Nese because the guy has a ton of potential; he looked great during the Cruiserweight Classic, has a good marketable look and just needs some personality.

Jack Gallagher made a strong impression on fans last night. I don't think a lot of them quite knew what to make of him but they got into him once they saw his unique offense and technical prowess. Hardly any of them knew who he was prior to his match but I think that'll change going forward.

I enjoyed the show overall, the first match didn't do anything for me and ultimately just seemed like another random tag team match featuring the cruiserweights like we've been seeing on Raw. I'd rather they didn't do the tag matches, quite frankly, because the division is too small for a viable tag team division and the Bollywood Boys seem like the only "real" tag team and they're not even all that good.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

For me Kendrick was just starting to get me invested in the division with his work as a heel. Plus his name sells. Also what the hell happened to TJ? Did he ever got a rematch? I don't remember.

They just gave the belt to Swann because he is the more popular and because they wanted 205 to feel special.

But I really feel like they really stopped caring about this division the moment it debuted on RAW. It was just something to gill the big 1 hour gap RAW had.

 

[OYDK]

Rich Swann's about the only guy who's gotten anywhere near over since the debut of the division. People care about Kendrick because they know who he is, but his booking was abysmal as CW champ. I think he won like, 2 matches throughout his whole time as champion. Plus, his style is much more suited for, well, any other division but the CW.

Swann's a good choice to build the division around. He, more than anybody else exemplifies what the CW division is supposed to be about. Plus, he has the poise of a veteran. Unlike TJP, he knows his gimmick and he plays it well. I don't have a problem with this decision at all. But I can also see Kendrick getting the thing back whenever they face off next. You never know nowadays.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

At this point really who cares about this really. The cruiserweight division is a total disaster. They made sure that the casual fans that goes to raw and smackdown taping don'T cares about those guys. You could see it last night during the cruiserweight title match, they did a couple of crowd shot during the match and everytime they did a close up of a kid you could see that he was bored and just wanted to go.

Now, next monday they have to explain the the audience that didn'T watch 205 live why the guy that was cruiserweight champion last monday isn'T and why the guy that wasn'T over one bit last monday is the champion this week.

All they had to do is look at how the cruiserweight division was book in WCW back in the day, put a couple of big name talent like neville, kalisto and sin cara and let them have 10 minutes matches that would show what the cruiserweight division is all about, instead these guys wrestles like any other top guys on the main rosters without any background to who the hell they are.

WWE think that everybody that goes to Raw and Smackdown tapings watch the WWE network on a regular basis or even have, which isn'T the case. A lot of fans are just happy to watch raw and smackdown or just one of the 2 show a week and don't care watching more wrestling on the network. So you need to educated those peoples as to who are these guys just like they need to do this when they call up a nxt guys but that'S WWE for ya. Until they realise that not everybody is watching the network on a regular basis especially those wrestling shows like NXt and 205 live, they are going to get flat reaction for those guys.

 

[Navi]

At this point really who cares about this really. The cruiserweight division is a total disaster. They made sure that the casual fans that goes to raw and smackdown taping don'T cares about those guys. You could see it last night during the cruiserweight title match, they did a couple of crowd shot during the match and everytime they did a close up of a kid you could see that he was bored and just wanted to go.

Well judging by some of the responses on this thread some of us care about it. And I can speak from experience that during the preshow at SS, the 6 man cruiserweight match did have the crowd behind it. It was a damm good match. Some close up of a kid who is bored isn't going to make me stop watching it. If you had watched the CWC, that featured great matches and was very interesting. Not every night can be like that, but maybe we should give these guys a chance.

Now, next monday they have to explain the the audience that didn'T watch 205 live why the guy that was cruiserweight champion last monday isn'T and why the guy that wasn'T over one bit last monday is the champion this week.

Who cares, they have 3 hours to fill. So what they take up a few minutes talking about Swann and how he won. Maybe more people will tune in. If you don't like it you can always leave the room.

All they had to do is look at how the cruiserweight division was book in WCW back in the day, put a couple of big name talent like neville, kalisto and sin cara and let them have 10 minutes matches that would show what the cruiserweight division is all about, instead these guys wrestles like any other top guys on the main rosters without any background to who the hell they are.

Why go back to the way WCW did it? They have a network and nothing wrong with putting it on there. It's simple if you don't want to watch then don't.

WWE think that everybody that goes to Raw and Smackdown tapings watch the WWE network on a regular basis or even have, which isn'T the case. A lot of fans are just happy to watch raw and smackdown or just one of the 2 show a week and don't care watching more wrestling on the network. So you need to educated those peoples as to who are these guys just like they need to do this when they call up a nxt guys but that'S WWE for ya. Until they realise that not everybody is watching the network on a regular basis especially those wrestling shows like NXt and 205 live, they are going to get flat reaction for those guys.

What exactly is a regular basis? How many cities get RAW every week? Maybe putting on 205 Live and getting people to watch will entice them to go to a SD tapes just to see the show.

Don't be that guy that just because he doesn't like the cruiserweights think's they shouldn't be on TV. Look at the reaction's that the NXT people are now getting, nothing says that won't happen with 205 Live. Again give it time they've only done one show.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Well judging by some of the responses on this thread some of us care about it. And I can speak from experience that during the preshow at SS, the 6 man cruiserweight match did have the crowd behind it. It was a damm good match. Some close up of a kid who is bored isn't going to make me stop watching it. If you had watched the CWC, that featured great matches and was very interesting. Not every night can be like that, but maybe we should give these guys a chance.



Who cares, they have 3 hours to fill. So what they take up a few minutes talking about Swann and how he won. Maybe more people will tune in. If you don't like it you can always leave the room.



Why go back to the way WCW did it? They have a network and nothing wrong with putting it on there. It's simple if you don't want to watch then don't.



What exactly is a regular basis? How many cities get RAW every week? Maybe putting on 205 Live and getting people to watch will entice them to go to a SD tapes just to see the show.

Don't be that guy that just because he doesn't like the cruiserweights think's they shouldn't be on TV. Look at the reaction's that the NXT people are now getting, nothing says that won't happen with 205 Live. Again give it time they've only done one show.

You miss the point I was making with my comment. Personally, I don't mind the cruiserweight at all, will I do think you could do more with them then just throw then out there on raw to be filler matches, I still don't mind them.

my point is that for the casual fans that goes to wwe events and don't watch every wrestling shows on wwe network or even don't have the network is a little bit harder to get behind these guys because wwe didn't give you a reason to care about them. Sure peoples like you and other on this board will cared about them because plain simple, we watch nxt, we watch watch 205 live, we watch the cwc so by now we know who these guys are and cared for them but that about it. WWE should stop thinking that just because something is over on the network that it will be on the main roster instantly.

When you lose half of your audience in the arena because you decided to do this show live after the smackdown taping, it kinda proof my point that the casual fans aren't interested in staying to watch an hour of cruiserweight matches after smackdown

muy point about wcw was more about the presentation of the cruiserweight then anything else. You need to have some characters that will be larger then life and will take the imagination of the casual fans away. Somebody like kalisto or neville would greatly help that division out in my opinion.

Again, nothing against them, I'm happy that wwe is trying to savage the division with this show. And I did love the cwc but all I'm saying is that they have to stop thinking that just because these guys we're over on the network at full sail, that they will be automatically be over on the main roster with casual fans

 

[Dagger Dias]

I don't like Swann all that much myself but I can see why they made this title change. It was the first episode of the show so to have a face challenger win the title in a great match makes sense. For the most part. If Kendrick's reign had lasted longer then I would feel less divided on this. It's no secret that I'm against short title reigns in nearly every scenario. Perhaps they could have had Kendrick win the title from TJ sooner, or even if they had Kendrick win the Cruiserweight Classic in the first place. That aside.... the match was good and I really enjoyed the show overall. It gave the cruiserweights a chance to develop characters and do more in a match than just get randomly thrown together in a situation no one cares about like they have on Raw for the past couple of months. I'll likely be watching the show back to back with NXT later on in the week on most weeks, which I did tonight and had fun doing so. They should give Swann a decent reign now that he has won. As in, NOT putting the title right back on Kendrick in their next encounter. Have him go through Kendrick in the rematch, TJ, and some of the other guys too. Establish him as a true top guy for the new purple brand. Kendrick, TJ, and Swann can easily be the top three going forward from here.

 

[Isaac Kaye]

I didn't see the match but I've been pretty impressed by what I've seen of Swann. He got bags of energy and has an excellent connection with the crowd. In fact, he's one of the few cruiserweights who's probably over (to an extent), which is not something you can say of Kendrick - who has been getting lukewarm reactions since he won the title, despite having lots of mic time and a few vignettes. His in ring work has been a lot better though.

In terms of whether the title switch is the right idea - yeah I think so, but I'd like to have seen Swann chase it for a bit longer, but it doesn't really make a massive difference atm - nobody looks like a dominant champion and they're clearly not sure who they want to lead the division yet.

 

[ShinChan]

Happy for him.

I became his fan after his stint with No Way Jose in Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

I don't think that there's a better wrestler to dethrone Kendrick as the champ at the moment. Although Kendrick's reign could've been longer, yet a new show totally based upon the Cruiserweights needed the title change in the inaugral episode.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I finally watch the first episode of 205 live and I found it funny how when you take the cruiserweight out of the main roster, they feel more important all of a sudden. The only thing I would change about the show is having the show being live to tape instead of live. If you tape the show before smackdown instead of having it live, you would get more peoples In the arena and it would make it look way better on tv.

has for rich swann winning the title, he actually deserve it and made sense to have a title switch on the first show even through i actually loved kendrick as champion.

So in all really good show, great ending but it need to have the show being live to tape because putting this show live after smackdown is like giving the audience the main course first before giving them the appetizer and unless like it prove last week, unless your an hardcore fans, you're not staying to watch the lower cards wrestlers wrestles after seing the main event guys.

Now let's hope that address the title switch on raw tomorrow night since alot of fans that are watching raw are not watching 205 live.