Over the past several years, NXT has grown to be one of the most respected brands in the wrestling world. It started as WWE’s developmental show, but then morphed into its own entit,y even spawning NXT UK. Wrestlers who joined NXT originally strove to be called-up to one of the main WWE shows, Raw or SmackDown Live, but not so much these days, especially once it was announced that NXT would be getting a two-hour show on the USA Network.
Things haven’t gone as well for 205 Live.
After the successful Cruiserweight Classic tournament, WWE launched 205 Live. It focuses on the lighter weight class, faster paced superstars that had been largely absent from the WWE over the years leading up to the tournament. Unfortunately, 205 Live did not take off the way NXT did.
While there was a clear vision for NXT thanks to ongoing and developing leadership that included Triple H, Dusty Rhodes, William Regal, Matt Bloom, Shawn Michaels, and more, 205 Live never really seemed to have that. The only thing consistent for the show has been change. Several talented stars like Austin Aries, Neville (PAC) and Hideo Itami (KENTA) have all come and gone from the brand, while rumors persist that superstars like Kalisto and Gran Metalik are looking for their way out. Other 205 Live mainstays like Ali, Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy moved to the main brands but took a long time to start finding the TV time they deserve.
One of the biggest mistakes made was moving Enzo Amore to the brand and putting the Cruiserweight Championship on him. Keeping his larger than life personality and talents on the mic in mind, the man cannot wrestle. When you’ve got the depth of talent 205 Live has, putting the strap on someone like Enzo just doesn’t add up. It’s no wonder Neville chose to sit at home until he could get out of his WWE contract. You can only lose so many matches to Enzo before you snap.
Even though the quality and consistency of the booking on 205 Live has improved dramatically over the past year, fitting it into the WWE structure in a meaningful fashion has proven to be difficult. But moving NXT to the USA Network might provide an opportunity to do just that.
In a recent interview with Newsweek, Triple H made some comments about 205 Live that got the wrestling internet wags all fired up.
You’ll start to see 205 begin to [sit under the NXT umbrella]. I think it always existed as an island unto itself, a little bit, and it’s become lost in this limbo. You’ll begin to see it move more towards the NXT banner and the talent there. We have a lot of talent. For them to begin to compete either open against anyone [sic] or in the Cruiserweight division, but have that title sit under the NXT brand, is more meaningful.
Many speculators have taken this to mean that 205 Live is coming to an end, and that is definitely a potential interpretation of his comments. This is a negative and oddly definitive interpretation of what are somewhat nebulous comments but a possible interpretation nonetheless. It’s more realistic to take Triple H’s comments for what they are and that’s a potential roadmap for 205 Live’s success.
In recent months, there has been an increasing amount of crossover between NXT and 205 Live superstars. Drew Gulak, the current Cruiserweight Champion, popped up on NXT to take on Kushida and Matt Riddle. On 205 Live, Kushida, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Angel Garza have all made the trip from NXT. Oney Lorcan continues to pull double duty with his singles career on 205 Live and his NXT tag team alongside Danny Burch.
The back and forth between the two brands has done wonders for 205 Live, giving its superstars a chance to get greater exposure and driving fan interest towards the brand. As great as it is to see Ali, Cedric and Buddy on the “main brands,” it would be nice to see them continue to compete on 205 Live.
Currently, 205 Live initially airs on the WWE Network after each weekly episode of SmackDown in front of the same crowd. The show suffers from an apathetic response. The superstars are talented, and the matches are great so you usually hear some of the fans getting into the action as the show goes on, but it’s hard to ignore how dead the much of audience is throughout each episode. A stronger connection to NXT could help that. That includes moving it to Full Sail.
NXT has called Full Sail University its home since 2012 and will continue to do the same in its new format. The NXT crowd is filled with hardcore wrestling fanatics, the kind that appreciate the talent the cruiserweights bring to the ring. Casual fans that watch SmackDown only are not as familiar with the cruiserweight superstars, so putting 205 Live on in front of that crowd just doesn’t work. Putting them in front of an NXT crowd does.
Triple H is not talking about ending 205 Live. He’s talking about finally carving out a niche for 205 Live amongst the rest of WWE’s programming.
And that’s what all the talented superstars working on that show deserve.
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