According to a report from Mike Johnson at PWInsider, WWE officials have given the green light to introducing WWE Cruiserweight Tag Team titles to 205 Live following the crowning of a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion at WrestleMania 34. As per Johnson, “several championship designs have been worked on internally and we are told that the company recently finalized plans for the look of the championships.” Since Triple H took over control of 205 Live last month, the show and entire Cruiserweight Division has seen a resurgence in popularity akin to the initial WWE Cruiserweight Classic of 2016, with a minimizing of storylines and a focus on the in-ring abilities of the talent involved. A second championship for the division is a way to create more competition for the brand and the talent themselves.
With the success of Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Divisions in Japan, such as NJPW‘s IWGP Junior Heavyweight and Pro Wrestling NOAH‘s GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles, WWE is hoping to continue the trend of showcasing the lesser sized athletes in pro wrestling. The last major tag team titles in North America for this weight division was in WCW, when they introduced the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team titles in late February of 2001. An eight tag team tournament was created, that featured Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio, Jimmy Wang Yang & Kaz Hayashi and Air Raid (which featured a very young AJ Styles), was eventually won by the team of Kid Romeo and Elix Skipper. On the final edition of Monday Nitro, Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman won the titles, but they were abandoned by the WWE when they began the Invasion storyline soon after. While WWE holds the IP for WCW’s Cruiserweight Tag Team titles, chances are they won’t attach lineage to the titles (although mentioning Mysterio and Kidman’s connection could add instant prestige).
While initially it will create some strange bedfellows as far as tag team combinations, this opens the door for the WWE to bring in some independent tag teams who may not make the main roster individually or against the bigger teams of the Raw or Smackdown Tag Team Division. Early favourites would have to be some sort of pairing from 205 Live‘s Lucha House Party squad featuring Kalisto, Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik.
