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6 hours ago, MonteCarl said:

Surprised Roddy won. What do they do with Itami at this point? I figured it would be Itami and Alexander in the finals at Mania. 

And along with Roddy slipping and calling him Kenta, Nigel also called him Kobashi at one point. 

Doubly wacky, since his name is actually Kobayashi, isn't it? That was the whole point of becoming KENTA, since Kobayashi Kenta was too close to Kobashi Kenta. 

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For the past several months 205 Live has done a great job of developing the individual wrestler's personalities and putting on solid to very good matches but just hasn't been really coming together.  Part of that is the time slot, then there's the whole brand limbo where it's kind of it's own separate entity but guys from other brands show up there and it gets treated as an afterthought on Raw/PPVs.  Post-Enzo 205 Live has a lot of potential to be something great if handled the right way.  British Hornswoggle has been terrific so far in interjecting some much needed charisma into the show. 

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Yeah, I am trying to figure out the bracket, but I guess they are staving off of that due to surprise entrants.

Alright. So far we have had Cedric Alexander, Gran Metallik, TJP, Tyler Bate, Lince Dorado, Kallisto, Roderick Strong, Hideo Itami. Next week it will be Tozawa vs Mark Andrews and Tony Nese vs Drew Gulak. That means there are four more entrants. I know Mustafa is competing and Gallagher is presumably in it as well since he cut a promo. Davairi has no reason not to compete, but he has been off TV for awhile now. But I know given the format that they have been doing, they want a surprise entrant for each show. So I want to guess who are the surprise entrants are.

The aforementioned Rey Mysterio could appear given that he has been in talks with the WWE. Gargano could very damn well be in it as well, but come on. Dude needs to stay in NXT. Pete Dunne would be a welcome edition since he has not been doing much outside of NXT and going to indie shows. 

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I know Dunne fit's the weight limit (he's billed as 205) but much like Balor see him as a future main roster attraction (battering Enzo on the main roster in Manchester being an example) rather than being in a tournament for cruiserweights (and being in the division). I wouldn't complain if he was on the show, but he'd have to win. 

Ricochet is another name who could easily be in this. 

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Ali and G Jack are locks. Daivari seems likely since I think Ali will meet Cedric somewhere in the tournament. I think Ricochet or Lio Rush will be the last entrant in the tourney but depending on Daivari, Swann could be in as well and that is how they return him since the charges got dropped. 

 

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Lio Rush would be a nice addition, but dude is raw. He needs to stay on NXT for awhile and get over.

Ricochet would be great, but that means he would be losing to either Ali or Gallagher in the first round and hell no on that. I know Almas and a few others on NXT are eventually getting called up soon so NXT needs a steady revolving door of talent.

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I'd keep Ricochet out of the this cause he shouldn't be losing quite yet, but Lio Rush could be brought in for one night to take a fall and not really suffer. I can't be the only one interested in seeing a Rush/Gallagher match.

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I got through that last episode pretty smoothly, and I hope this is a look at things to come.  I just want the CWC every week and I'll be happy.  Give me a unique take on the WWE, not the same re-hashed Cruiserweight division that we have gotten in one form or another since 1997.  Both matches were pretty damn awesome, in their own ways.  I totally got into the story of Kalisto and Lince both wanting to go to Mania and neither accepting a loss easily.  Itami/Strong was pretty nice too and it really built up as the match went on. 

BTW, I never actually realized how Itami was not a star until now, at least in the WWE.  When he first came in, I really thought he had a good shot in the company but now, a couple years later, I fully understand his placement on the roster.  He can work his ass off and be a star in Japan, don't get me wrong.  Also, does he ever use the GTS anymore or has it been completely phased out?

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17 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Hot take: 205 Live was always a pretty good show in front of a dead crowd. The change isn't as dramatic as people think.

Pretty much this. They have been having good matches regularly since the beginning and had various decent little feuds. Even the short Enzo era brought solid story and good matches (when Enzo wasn't involved). The issue has always been them performing in front of a dead audience who is likely already tired out somewhat from SDL. People said it before, but they really should be taping before SDL or in smaller arenas and maybe forgo the live element.

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Based on my one experience, it wasn't so much fatigue, as total disengagement from the casual audience. All the parents and kids seated near me were complaining they had to wait for the promised main event, and were really confused what the show was, who these people were, etc. Maybe opening with it would do better--I tend to think so, fwiw--but apathy is apathy. 

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I don't think the apathy had to be/stay apathy though. I think they just rushed things giving the cruiserweights their own show so soon or at least attaching it it to the main audience so soon. They should have started off smaller and maybe try introducing the cruiserweights a bit more slowly to the main audience. The weird split between them and the regular Raw wrestlers is also a bit dumb. They needed more stuff like Alicia with Dar, Goldust becoming buddies with Cedric, Fashion Police arresting Gulak, etc (not necessarily these exact things except Fashion Police). One of the things I disliked was them splitting Tozawa from Titus Worldwide. There was no reason he and Crews couldn't have become a tag team and aimed for the tag belts post-Neville.

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4 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Hot take: 205 Live was always a pretty good show in front of a dead crowd. The change isn't as dramatic as people think.

Yes and no if that makes sense. I've been watching 205 Live from the beginning and while there were some good matches(Ali vs Neville, Neville vs Tozawa, Alexander vs Dar I Quit Match), a lot of the matches were disengaging because the wrestlers involved were wrestling a style too similar to the main roster. I like TJP as worker(as a person his attitude is not so dissimilar to Enzo), but TJP is the most generic of the cruiserweights. He is solid, but there is nothing sensational about him. A lot of his matches with Swan were tedious and the guy was meh. Then there is Kendrick who kind of got washed out as the veteran, but the issue here is that his style is too similar in the WWE and again not that substantial. Then there is Dar who is the weakest in the roster in my opinion, but I'm guessing he will grow into it.

There are a lot of guys in 205 Live who also did not live up to their expectations in the ring like Nese, Gulak, Daivari, and Gallagher

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7 minutes ago, Kyuubi said:

Gulak and Gallagher

I haven't seen as much of Nese and Daivari, but I'm not sure about Gulak and Gallagher.  I'm of the impression they were told by somebody to tone down certain elements of their style and focus on other aspects.  Gallagher from the start was focused more on certain moves and his look plus the umbrella lead me to think it was by design.  The heel run seems like overcompensating for me, but I wonder what he'll bring to the tournament.  As for Gulak while he was lost in the shuffle for awhile once he started with the signs the need to do the kind of matches he used wasn't there.  I think with the backstage segment for next week it could lead to a return to how he was.  But we'll see how it pans out Tuesday.

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5 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I haven't seen as much of Nese and Daivari, but I'm not sure about Gulak and Gallagher.  I'm of the impression they were told by somebody to tone down certain elements of their style and focus on other aspects.  Gallagher from the start was focused more on certain moves and his look plus the umbrella lead me to think it was by design.  The heel run seems like overcompensating for me, but I wonder what he'll bring to the tournament.  As for Gulak while he was lost in the shuffle for awhile once he started with the signs the need to do the kind of matches he used wasn't there.  I think with the backstage segment for next week it could lead to a return to how he was.  But we'll see how it pans out Tuesday.

I got the feeling that was the case with those two. Gulak did have that match with Alexander like a month ago were he upped the intensity and was Gulak from Philly.  Gallagher, however, needs to find a happy medium between being goofy classical British gentlemen and serious competitor. It hurt him wrestling WWE style and being a submission based guy because subs in WWE are glorified restholds unlike New Japan were you can legitimately believe that submissions are match enders. I hate ZSJ, but Gallagher should take his approach to matches.

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22 hours ago, Kyuubi said:

Yes and no if that makes sense. I've been watching 205 Live from the beginning and while there were some good matches(Ali vs Neville, Neville vs Tozawa, Alexander vs Dar I Quit Match), a lot of the matches were disengaging because the wrestlers involved were wrestling a style too similar to the main roster. I like TJP as worker(as a person his attitude is not so dissimilar to Enzo), but TJP is the most generic of the cruiserweights. He is solid, but there is nothing sensational about him. A lot of his matches with Swan were tedious and the guy was meh. Then there is Kendrick who kind of got washed out as the veteran, but the issue here is that his style is too similar in the WWE and again not that substantial. Then there is Dar who is the weakest in the roster in my opinion, but I'm guessing he will grow into it.

There are a lot of guys in 205 Live who also did not live up to their expectations in the ring like Nese, Gulak, Daivari, and Gallagher

It makes sense. There's always been stuff that's been good but has that "main roster" stink on it. Kendrick as the grizzled vet is a card they played too soon. Neville being sick of the fans and wrestling an anti-cruiser style was very "main roster." And then Enzo....

I've enjoyed most of that, but they blew it with the casual fan and CWC viewer. That said, I don't see the big difference yet. I guess people are excited by "Papa Haitch" and a direction. 

 

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