The Cruiserweight Classic 2.0

[Jack-Hammer]

On 205 Live, Daniel Bryan introduced the 205 Live General Manager, Drake Maverick, AKA Rockstar Spud. Maverick revealed that there's going to be a 16 man, single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion and that the finals of the tournament will happen at WrestleMania. So, for all intents and purposes, this is a lot like the Cruiserweight Classic and maybe this is a way of hitting resent on the entire division.

First off, Drake Maverick is one stupid ass name. I don't usually rag on wrestler's work names but Drake Maverick is just lousy, I mean worse than Michael McGuillicutty lousy. Factor in the name with how he looks with the highlighted blonde hair, spray on tan and the suit he was wearing....I dunno, he's someone who should be a GM's gofer, not the GM itself.

As for the tournament itself, it gives them something meaningful to do during WrestleMania season but it'll just be the same old same old afterward if there isn't an overhaul.

 

[Sean Valjean]

Rockstar Spud in WWE. Didn't expect that.

The new tournament won't have the same magic as the original for the same reasons 205 Live hasn't taken off: the crowd. The matches will be fine but the atmosphere won't be nearly as awesome. I do like the idea of holding the finals at Mania, even if it's likely to be on the pre-show.

As for who should win, probably Cedric after so much teasing even if he's not the most interesting personality. I'd give it to Gulak or maybe Itami as a third option barring any surprise participants.

Also, I would take Drake Maverick over Michael McGullicutty or Rockstar Spud any day, personally. It's an over-the-top name but Spud is kind of an over-the-top dude.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I like Drake Maverick as a name for a goofy character. It just screams 80s action hero, and having the tiny Spudd play that will be great.

WWE announced that next week Roderick Strong will make his main roster debut and face off against Itami in a qualifier. Should be a decent enough match, but neither guy really has anything close to charisma.

 

[Navi]

I'm with Yaz here. I like the name, as soon as I heard it, it reminded me of Homer Simpson becoming "Max Power" for some reason.

Hopefully this will reset the division as it seems to have fallen to bits lately.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

This tournament will pretty much give you a good idea where certains nxt guys will end up when they get called up. But even through the matches will be awesome, the fact that you're doing it in front of main roster crowd instead of a NXT crowd like the cwc was so you won't have the die hard wrestling reacting to everything.

In the end I like the idea of making the final at mania but only if they threat it like a important match and put it on the main card which I feel they won't do. This is a important reboot for the brand and to continue to have the cruiserweight matches on the Pre show in front of 200 people's won't help the brand grow. So I don't mind if they use it as a buffer match at mania, just having the final on the main card will help division feel important.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Maybe the division needs something else, you know. Everybody keeps saying how the wrestling on the show 205 live, ended up being so different than the wrestling on the Cruiserweight Classic. So, let them wrestle the way they know. Let them move away from the "WWE style". Let them do their thing completely.

What I'd also do is, give them their own PPV. We're in the Network Era. This can happen now, whereas it wouldn't be able to happen back with the old PPV format. So, after Wrestlemania, where the buzz is still hot, create a Cruiserweight Exclusive PPV.
You have top Cruiserweight names like Mysterio, Neville, Itami and Balor. Move these guys to the main roster, but when it comes to 205 live, make them the Brock Lesnar of that show. Make them unique and have them appear there once in a while.

So on this PPV, you get Balor, you get Neville, Itami and Mysterio and have them wrestle. Let Balor vs Mysterio be the main event! Then have the rest of card filled with the rest of the division, plus a Cruiserweight Championship match.

Now that would get eyes back on the 205 show, wouldn't it?

 

[#hamler]

Seems like an unnecessary amount of time to keep the Cruiserweight Championship vacant when there are plenty of guys who can rejuvenate the division like Rey Mysterio or Finn Balor. I get that they want to do an overhaul and rightfully so but after the tournament, it'll likely go back to being the utter mess it is right now. If they can get bigger names in the tournament than they already do, it'll help establish it's credibility.

We need Ricochet on the main roster. He definitely has the charisma to get over with the 205 Live crowd and he's a perfect face to lead the brand. As for the rest of the roster, I'd sincerely love it if 205 Live was treated better. I said this in another thread but 205 Live is considered a demotion for any wrestler and that's a stigma I desperately want the WWE to rid themselves of going forward. The 205 Live division shouldn't be considered a death sentence to one's career. The Finn Balors or Ricochets should be able to move freely through divisions whenever they feel like it. Use bigger names in the tournament and move them back to the Raw roster whenever they're needed.

The Cruiserweight Championship should be on the same footing as the Intercontinental and United States Championships where guys like Balor don't see it as a demotion.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The problem with 205 live at a whole is that it's live every week after Smackdown, so you're asking a crowd that's not always a smart crowd to stay after the saw the big stars like Owens and A.J Styles, and watch the lower mid card guys wrestled. You could give them only 5 stars matches and they wouldn'T react because these guys are perceive by the casual audience as no name guys.

What i would have done with them after the CWC is to continue pushing them as part of NXT and continue to film the show from Full sail, with that crowd, theses guys would have been perceive like megastars because that's the type of crowd that this type of wrestling these fans like. So you could put pretty much anybody big name in the division and it won't change a think, they tried with Neville, Enzo and Kalisto and fans didn't care that much plus the viewership with didn't change that much.

Now there doing another tournament while keeping the same formula of having it live after smackdown and the MMC, So now you give them even less of a reason to stay and watch those matches because they've seen all the stars and now it's time for the one thing they don'T really want to see and that's actual competition between 2 athletes and not even Rey mysterio or Finn balor could change that perceptive at this time.

If i was them and that's just me armchair quarterbacking here, i would scrap the would 205 live experiment, take the cruiserweight off Raw and just have them be a extension of NXT, Tape the tournament at full sail and have the final at takeover instead, that'S where this brand should be since it's attract the same type of fans. But they seem to be pig headed and want them to be part of the main roster and it will never work that way because they're just guys that fill like the only deserve to wrestled on Main event and they could change everything with how they booked the brand and bring any big indy star or just star in the division and that's pretty much the perception that the brand will always have.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I'm starting to get scared about this tournament will end up meaning nothing. Looking at the bracket I feel they are giving too many wrestlemania worthy matches on tv and the finals will be lackluster because of who in it and will end up in the dead spot of the wrestlemania kickoff.

Look at what we're getting in the next few weeks.
Tjp vs Cedric: wrestlemania worthy
Roderick vs kalisto: should have been the finals
The winners of these 2 matches: wrestlemania worthy

Then you have the other side
Gulak vs Andrews
Ali vs Murphy
These four while I like them don't scream big time mania match.

So if I had to predict the rest of the tournament, have Cedric beat TJP, kalisto beat Roderick, gulak beat Andrews and Murphy beats Ali.

Then have Cedric beat kalisto and gulak beats Murphy

So the final match for the kickoff would be Cedric vs gulak with Cedric winning. Storyline wise, this feel like the only match that make sense with the way they did the bracket.

The other problem they have now is that I feel like the presentation didn't change as much as we think they did. The only think that change is that the gimmicks are gone but outside of that, it's still the same product

 

[Papa Pillman]

The other problem they have now is that I feel like the presentation didn't change as much as we think they did. The only think that change is that the gimmicks are gone but outside of that, it's still the same product

You don't think that there is a noticeable difference in the match layouts and overall match quality of the tourney matches compared to what 205Live had been previously??

The matches so far haven't really resembled main roster WWE matches, even less so than NXT does and far less so than 205Live had prior to this soft reboot. They in fact feel almost identical to the style that we saw during the CWC. The only real difference is the matches have lacked the kind of punch that the workrate would suggest due to utterly dead crowds full of pathetic excuses for wrestling fans. They need to go to bulk tapings in front of hot crowds that actually care about wrestling, like what we get for NXT or what we got for the CWC or Mae Young Classic.

 

[JoeMallard]

205 live has been shitting on both Raw and Smackdown in terms of wrestling and storylines since it began. I've been more invested in 205 live more than anything besides NXT.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

You don't think that there is a noticeable difference in the match layouts and overall match quality of the tourney matches compared to what 205Live had been previously??

The matches so far haven't really resembled main roster WWE matches, even less so than NXT does and far less so than 205Live had prior to this soft reboot. They in fact feel almost identical to the style that we saw during the CWC. The only real difference is the matches have lacked the kind of punch that the workrate would suggest due to utterly dead crowds full of pathetic excuses for wrestling fans. They need to go to bulk tapings in front of hot crowds that actually care about wrestling, like what we get for NXT or what we got for the CWC or Mae Young Classic.

In the beginning of the tournament I would agree with you about the change but their slowly going back to the way they booked the show if you based yourself on this week episode. Before the change, you would have matches booked exactly like those on this week show but with some character development.

But I agree they need to move this out of the main roster setting and tapes the show in front of wrestling fans. The hardest thing the brand as to fight is the fact that the whole division looked like we're watching preliminary matches and outside of the luchadors, nobody is over.

If I was using my fantasy booking hat for the division. First of all, I would have taken a couple of week off after the whole enzo debacle. Took this as a chance to truly rebrand the division, then use to fact that you we're taping NXT at center stage to tape some episode of 205 live at the same place and have the final being at takeover new Orleans instead of mania, because right now, I feel the mentality toward the cruiserweight hasn't chance that much and the finals will be made to look insignificant by being put in the dead spot of the mania kickoff show. I hope that I'm wrong but looking at the bracket it sure looking like this since all the main event matches will happened on 205 live.