{"id":28817,"date":"2018-10-18T18:52:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T22:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=28817"},"modified":"2018-10-18T18:52:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T22:52:56","slug":"205-live-100-a-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/10\/18\/205-live-100-a-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"205 Live 100: A Retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The WWE\u00a0<strong>Cruiserweight Classic<\/strong>, which took place in the summer of 2016, seemed to mark a minor change in WWE\u2019s thinking. Typically a big man\u2019s promotion, WWE was now putting time, money, and effort to present a different kind of product, appeasing the increasingly growing indie wrestling scene that highlighted this kind of work. The tournament itself, for the most part, was very well received, with stellar matches that demonstrated how good wrestling outside of WWE was. In the end, however, the tournament ended on the wrong foot. <strong>TJ Perkins<\/strong> ended up winning the tourney, and thus the first winner of the resurrected WWE Cruiserweight title (completely ignoring its previous history). His win felt underwhelming. After seeing the likes of<strong> Gran Metalik, Zack Sabre, Jr.<\/strong>\u00a0and, above all, <strong>Kota Ibushi<\/strong> in the tournament, Perkins felt like a second rate choice for champion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"T.J. Perkins is crowned WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Cruiserweight Classic Live Finale on WWE Network\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Djqj24Uuy6U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Then there was the unceremonious introduction of the Cruiserweights into <em><strong>Monday Night RAW<\/strong> <\/em>in September 2016. The Cruiserweight title was defended at both <strong><em>Clash of Champions<\/em><\/strong> and <em><strong>Hell in a Cell<\/strong><\/em> during that time, and the <strong>Hell in a Cell<\/strong> bout saw <strong>Brian Kendrick<\/strong> take the belt from Perkins. After a few middling months of the cruiserweights working their five to ten minute segments on RAW, <em>205 Live<\/em> debuted on November 29th, 2016, which ended with another title change, as <strong>Rich Swann<\/strong> won the title from the wily veteran. Tapings occurred after <em><strong>Smackdown Live<\/strong><\/em>, which meant the crowds were small and dead quiet. This was an epidemic that plagued the brand up until recently.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A look back at Rich Swann&#039;s WWE Cruiserweight Title victory: Raw, Dec. 5, 2016\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m-Rxy0OA-BA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <em><strong>Royal Rumble 2017<\/strong><\/em> saw the beginning of the <strong>Neville<\/strong> era, which many in the internet fandom approved of. Neville was always a tremendous worker, and portrayed his King of the Cruiserweights character well, but the <em>205 Live<\/em> brand felt like it was meandering, and was not garnering much attention. Neville briefly dropped the title to Akira Tozawa, only to regain it six days later. Then, as characters were emphasized over work &#8211; ironically on a brand that was launched on the premise of good in ring work &#8211; <strong>Enzo Amore<\/strong> was moved to the <em>205 Live<\/em> brand, and took the title from Neville. Neville soon made for the door out of WWE, and eventually landed in greener pastures, <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2018\/10\/02\/breaking-pacs-back-neville-makes-return-to-dragon-gate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">now finding himself in Dragon Gate in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Neville returns to assault the Cruiserweights: WWE Roadblock: End of the Line 2016 on WWE Network\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n2gBsFTRJ0A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The quality of The Amore Era\u2019s shows are dependent upon preference of style. The brand started seeing lengthy promos and over the top gimmicks, like <strong>Drew Gulak<\/strong>\u2019s PowerPoint Presentation. From late September 2017 to late January 2018, the show was completely built around Amore, and he was champion during that time for all but two weeks, when he dropped it to <strong>Kalisto<\/strong> briefly during a feud with him. In January of this year, however, Amore was let go from the WWE, relating to rape allegations he was facing. So the title was vacated, and a tournament was held to crown a new champion, which culminated at the <em><strong>WrestleMania<\/strong><\/em> Kick-Off Show, where <strong>Cedric Alexander<\/strong> defeated <strong>Mustafa Ali<\/strong> to win the title.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Enzo Amore makes his 205 Live debut: WWE 205 Live, Aug. 22, 2017\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A_1KIl88Bvo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It was around this time, during the first quarter of 2018, that <strong>Triple H<\/strong> took over lead creative of <em>205 Live<\/em>, and afterwards the product saw a renewed focus on solid wrestling, logical booking, and more controlled characters. <strong>Buddy Murphy<\/strong>, who was in house show limbo in NXT, was brought up, and quickly became one of the top performers on the show. The brand began producing some of the better shows that WWE was putting out on any platform, and in 2018 is arguably the most consistent show the company produces. Recently, the tapings for the show were moved to before <em>SmackDown Live<\/em>, and were no longer aired live but the next day on the WWE Network. Thereafter, both the crowd reactions and number of viewers improved. At <em><strong>Super Show-Down<\/strong><\/em> on October 6th, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Buddy Murphy ended the six month reign of Cedric Alexander, winning the title in his hometown, in what many considered the match of the night.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mustafa Ali vs Buddy Murphy - Cruiserweight Title Tournament Quarterfinal: 205 Live, March 6, 2018\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RlKCVkgwBMo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the one hundredth episode of <em>205 Live\u00a0<\/em>next week, the quality of the brand still seems to be lost on the WWE audience, as it is still the least talked about show amongst the companies four brands (<em>RAW, SmackDown Live, 205 Live<\/em>, and NXT). The long term impact of <em>205 Live<\/em> remains uncertain. The show, while quality and consistent, is merely trudging along in its growth. People like Mustafa Ali, however, seem hell bent on building this brand. Ali has contributed to some of the better matches this year for <em>205 Live<\/em>, and is vocal on social media about his intentions to grow this show. On the one hundredth episode this week, he faces <strong>Hideo Itami<\/strong> in a Falls Count Anywhere Match, and knowing the work ethic of those two, they\u2019ll pull everything out to get this fight over. Right now, <em>205 Live<\/em> is moving closer to becoming a big deal for wrestling fans, but isn\u2019t quite there yet. The first ninety-nine episodes have had ups and downs, and how many of each really depend on one\u2019s preference. But the consistency the brand has demonstrated in 2018 can\u2019t help but engender hopeful anticipation for the future. Maybe another 100 episodes from now, it\u2019ll be thought of more fondly than its originating Cruiserweight Classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WWE\u00a0Cruiserweight Classic, which took place in the summer of 2016, seemed to mark a minor change in WWE\u2019s thinking. Typically a big man\u2019s promotion, WWE was now putting time, money, and effort to present a different kind of product, appeasing the increasingly growing indie wrestling scene that highlighted this kind of work. The tournament [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":28838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[316,3],"tags":[299],"class_list":["post-28817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-205live","category-wwe-universe","tag-205-live"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}