10 Major Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2017

8. 205 Live Is Dead. Kill It.

Pete Dunne
WWE.com

What more is there to write?

WWE shouldn't air 205 Live live, at least not after SmackDown. Like so much else in the company, it's all backwards. The Most Exciting Hour On Television features a glorified version of cruiserweight wrestling not at all dissimilar to the action on flagship programming. There are no stakes outside of a title picture acting as pure Kickoff filler. The talent is barely over because they are restricted, promoted apathetically, and stigmatised as skippable nonentities. There is too much wrestling to consume. There is too much WWE to consume for those who don't care for other promotions.

Take's not hot. Everybody knows the problem, which is why virtually everybody ignores 205 Live in their overstuffed wrestling diets. The failure of 205 Live is surely more embarrassing than killing it off, which you have to deduce is the reason it remains a Network fixture. It is a waste of money, and resources: there are great workers on that roster, but they're framed on the margins of the real show, and thus not received as the genuine article.

The show itself isn't the problem - it's not offensively bad, just dull - but the mentality is. Chief Strategy and Financial Officer George Barrios reckons we'll consume "just about everything" "super-served" to us.

He might need to rethink that one, given that 205 Live is routinely trounced by tears-old WCW PPVs talked up on mid-table podcasts.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!