10 Reasons WWE's Cruiserweight Division Has Fallen
For 205 Live, the damage has been done - and it's time to rebuild.
Fans, for years, longed and clamored for the return of a Cruiserweight division in WWE. The timing was never right, until 2016, when the Cruiserweight Classic was held as a WWE Network-exclusive event, featuring some of the best wrestling the company has promoted in the last decade.
Of course, the CWC was what opened the doors for Cruiserweight wrestling to be brought back to WWE programming full-time. Once it was officially announced that the division would be brought back on Raw, starting in September 2016, speculation ran wild as to how the aerial artists would inject new life into the dull three-hour format of the show, and how they would be handled.
Unfortunately, since the Cruiserweight division was botched from the get-go, it was all downhill from there.
Even the inception of 205 Live couldn't help the Cruiserweights, and for a solid year or so, there was zero buzz surrounding the scene. Something that started out with so much promise and excitement gradually deteriorated into the exact opposite of what the CWC was all about.
It wasn't until Triple H was given control of the Cruiserweights that the division finally took a turn for the better, but these were the 10 factors that contributed to its initial demise...
10. Lackluster Debut Of The Division
For months, WWE promoted the pending return of the Cruiserweight division through a series of vignettes that aired weekly on Raw. However, when it finally came time for them to make a major impact on the flagship show and showcase their skills to the world, the Cruiserweight competitors fell flat.
Let the record show that it was hardly the fault of the talent involved. The Fatal 4-Way pitting Cedric Alexander, The Brian Kendrick, Gran Metalik and Rich Swann against each other was good, yet far from what viewers had come to expect from them in the Cruiserweight Classic. It also didn't help that the then-Cruiserweight champion, TJP, was nowhere to be seen on Raw that night.
Worse yet, their match was placed so late in the evening that it was difficult for fans to care, when in reality, it really should have kicked off the show. Plus, Mick Foley was put in charge of handling the in-ring introductions, which, to be honest, he did a poor job with.
It was apparent at that point the Cruiserweight division wouldn't be what fans hoped it would be.