CWC 2.0 205 Live

This week WWE announced a new GM in ROCKSTAR Spud and a new tournament for the Cruiserweight title to culminate at Wrestlemania.

So 205 Live is now what it should have always been. Matches that mean something every week. With a little bit of backstage segments left to guys who can do that stuff.

Straight away Drake Maverick (spud) fit in and had a few segments to establish his role. He is money. A natural on air talent. A bit of comedy with Gulak and an inspiring gm speech to TJP and Metalic to establish his authority and desire for competition in ring.  

There were just two matches, allowing time to do something people can get in to, and as far as establishing characters, Alexander did more of that with one match than any of his time on Raw where he and others would tell you who he is or why he is a good guy. It's almost like wrestlers can develop a character and tell a story without saying anything in ring. Who knew...

As far as matches and results so far it stands

Alexander vs Gran Metalic with Alexander getting a pinfall victory

Tyler Bate vs TJP with TwatJP getting the victory

I'm not sure on the entire tournament bracket, but the dream match would maybe be Ricochet vs Pete Dunne it they appear in it

Next week it will be

Kalisto vs Lince
Hideo vs Roddy Strong

I keep meaning to watch the Alexander match, apparently it's a great piece of work and shows why I really rate him. His match with Ibushi in the CWC a couple of years back was stunning too.

I did wonder if Rey was back to be the CW GM, but really glad he's not. I was kinda hoping that the Mania ladder this year would be for the CW title, giving some of these guys 15-20 minutes to hurl themselves off ladders would have been blindingly good fun. Spud is good though, and I think he'll do brilliantly. Love the name too!

I'm hoping Ricochet isn't in it, the way he was shown at NXT with EC3 and War Machine makes me think he'll be there for a while; I can't Adam Cole and FutureShock and Aleister Black being in NXT much longer. Authors of Pain must be a due a call-up too at some point.

Only downside is if this gets shunted to the Mania pre-show, which is something I can easily see happening.

Ive already come up with his catchphrase. It just came to me as I read your post... "Thats Mr. Maverick to you" I hated Drake because who the fuck is called Drake lol but then I googled the name... from the Old English byname Draca, meaning 'snake'. Now I don't mind it lol. All these UK stars need to get hacking some ideas from here too. The dying breed of 606 still got some gold

Oh, I didn't see ricochet at takeover, I must have been out of the room. Gargano is rumoured to be coming up to main roster as well, so that's a big fan favourite gap to fill. .

Probably will be pre show unless it's two guys WWE really want to showcase. It would be great as a match to liven the crowd up after the "half time" show they do at WM. No one gives a fuck about the live concert stuff so toilet/concessions and back for an exciting match.

I hadn't watched 205 in a long time, even though Gulak is quite over now (of course he is) it was impossible to care about 3v3 tag matches or whatever pointless stuff they booked. But I watched in hope of Spud being the GM, and then the tournament format hooked me back in. It's so simple but the fact that it's win or go home adds all the psychology you need to play with to create something great.

Finally watching 205 Live from last week. My over-riding reaction to Spud's unveiing is that he's massively overdone the fake tan. He looks like he's got jaundice.

I think it's probably his gimmick, the Brit who can't be mocked for being pale

Not watched this week's yet, but I'm actually looking forward to 205 live, so that's a big step forward. Strong vs Itami and the potential for more Maverick/Gulak interactions.

They had Spud on Raw this week driving home the fact that there will be surprise entrants too. confirming what people were thinking. There's a lot of cruiserweight talent they can pick from that won't disappoint.

It can't happen, but I'd like to see Scurll turn up and slap Spud because they have good hatred chemistry. And really Spud and Marty propelled themselves high from pretty much scratch when only Scurll was getting any decent bookings. They took the character route too. It's not like they are technical masters.

There are major behind-the-scenes changes going on with the WWE 205 Live brand as Vince McMahon has stepped aside and is no longer personally producing the show, according to PWInsider. The changes began with last week's episode, which featured new 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick and kicked off the 16-man tournament that will end at WrestleMania 34 with the crowning of a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion.

Triple H is now overseeing 205 Live and he has brought back some of the aspects of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic tournament, including the style and presentation of the wrestlers. Vince had personally worked with the 205 Live Superstars to bring out their personalities to present them in a certain way but there has been more focus on the in-ring work under Triple H.


Pete Dunne vs Cedric Alexander anyone? Lol

Good news about Trips. They needed to do something to make it different from NXT and Raw, and CWC was so well received - I still watch that Ibushi vs Cedric match, it's still a great piece of work.

I'm wondering (hoping) if Rey is going to enter. Him vs Kalisto could be something really special.

I'm in two minds on Rey. He's an established biggest little man. Most of his work in wwe was as the underdog and that's what he's known for. So it might look like a smear on his past. But if they are dead serious about making it a legit division first and foremost, like we've always said they needed to do, then it would be great.

The moment I've been waiting for since they started the division as a show could happen next week. Drew Gulak, Dragon sleeper, natural shock and awe reaction. He's done great adapting to the Vince way, (even though I've only been watching Raw he got time and it showed he had grown with his character and promo work) but he is as legit as it gets as a worker and that has been lost with the other stuff taking over and him jobbing out to everyone. He could maybe establish himself as the complete package and legit contender now the format is back to in ring with less weird love stories and more "who are they and what drives them" and characters and quirks can evolve from that point on. I think Vince likes him though, so might keep him as a character on Raw lol

Gulak vs Neese has the built in are they really friends or just temporary allies for convenience for story, plus a wasted potential angle. That's a lot to build a good match around. Strength, Agility and Ego vs Technical prowess and a lost killer instinct

And it was a really good match. I was kinda amazed that an unknown Welsh guy, Mark Andrews, beat Tozawa, though. There's been a couple of shocking results so far, but I don't like that they're all playing up the 'I want to go to Mania!' side of things more than winning the belt. Kinda makes wrestling at Mania mean more than winning the title, and I'm not sure it should be seen like that. Especially as the final will blatantly be on the pre-show.

Drew Gulak has snapped Choking out your friend when you've already knocked him out and then powerbombed him twice is like a full character reset.  It looks like he wants the belt seeing as he grabbed it in his angry celebration even if everyone else is just happy for the chance to get to WM lol. It's probably just lingering Vince isms but representing the division at wrestlemania does make sense to some extent, but more people need to be focused on the title, and the commentary team need to big up the prize more. After all getting to the final means nothing if you lose in kayfabe, no winners purse, no championship bonuses, no glory. No matter how much it means to be at WM in reality and that in reality you get paid for being there.


...On Mandrews winning (I physically cringe typing Mandrews and almost anything about him makes me cringe. I haàaaaaaaaate hipster wrestlers) The one thing I can think of is that him and Pete Dunne's first ever match was in a car park in Coventry the progression from that to WM would be an unbelievably good story. And I guarantee HHH sees money in that story because they mentioned it in the UK tournament videos. It's probably too soon for it, but still. You never know. I think it was Andrew's anyway lol