WWE is launching a weekly cruiserweight division show called '205 Live'
WWE announced that a new live weekly show featuring the stars of Raw's cruiserweight division is coming to the WWE Network. 205 Live will air Tuesdays immediately after SmackDown ends at 10:00 p.m. ET on the WWE Network beginning November 29th.
Via WWE:
"Coming off the success of WWE Network’s recent Cruiserweight Classic tournament and the formation of the new Cruiserweight division, which airs exclusively on Monday Night Raw, 205 Live will feature Superstars that are 205 pounds and under, including: new WWE Cruiserweight Champion The Brian Kendrick, as well as TJ Perkins, Rich Swann, Noam Dar, HoHo Lun, Cedric Alexander, Lince Dorado, Gran Metallik, [Akira] Tozawa, Jack Gallagher, Gurv Sihra and Harv Sihra."
Giving the cruiserweights weekly airtime outside of the confines of Raw is exactly what the stars of the division need, as it's difficult for the audience to invest in any of them individually when they're thrown in weekly six-man tag matches. TJ Perkins and The Brian Kendrick are likely the only two cruiserweights most casual fans are familiar with at this point, but the Cruiserweight Classic proved that there are more than a dozen budding stars who are worth watching.
Putting Mauro Ranallo on commentary is another smart move, as his enthusiasm for the division (along with Daniel Bryan) helped make the CWC a must-watch show each week, and Michael Cole simply doesn't create the same type of excitement for Cruiserweight matches on Raw. While it would have been great to see Ranallo reunited with Bryan, Corey Graves should be a solid partner.
205 Live will air in the slot currently occupied by Talking Smack, the weekly post-SmackDown talk show, and WWE has confirmed that Talking Smack will air following 205 Live once the show debuts.
