WWE considering cruiserweight-exclusive show for WWE network

[Arch Stanton]

What about over here? Will it even be available in the UK at first?

[ItsClobberingTime]

I don't believe there's been any news about the UK yet.

[Dingo Warrior]

Any attempt to bring back Cruiserweight wrestling to the WWE would be a disaster as they would force those wrestlers to work within the WWE style which to be frank is not very Cruiserweight friendly.

 

Cruiserweight wrestling needs to be left to those promotions who know how promote it properly such as TNA, ROH, PWG, AAA, CMLL, NJPW, AJPW, Noah, Dragon Gate and other Japanese promotions.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

I don't see where I even made any inference that the wrestlers will all have identical styles of offence.

 

You said...

 

The whole attraction of the cruiserweight division, similar to hardcore, minis, and even tag nowadays, is that it's something different; a little diversion or bit of light relief to bring variety to shows and give the fans something a little bit different. Fill a whole show with all that and the novelty won't be long in wearing off.

 

... and I presumed you were referring to the idea/presumption/expectation that most cruiserweights wrestle a similar style, hence why in your eyes it's only good enough as a novelty / diversion.

 

My counter argument is that a cruiserweight show could actually take cruiserweight wrestling and expand upon it. A cruiser weight show dosen't NEED to be all "samey" and that a cruiserweight wrestler *COULD* wrestle a variety of style, *COULD* compete in a variety of a different matches and *COULD* portray a number of characters. Therefore if handled correctly, a cruiserweight show can become more than just a glorified "novelty" or "diversion".

 

However I completely agree that this is in a ideal world, and there is no guarantee that WWE will produce a show of this nature, and could end up ruining it by filling it with generic one note highflyers.

 

If a cruiserweight division is introduced, they'll all have to adapt to however the WWE want it to be like. And I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to presume that a cruiserweight division would be marketed and hyped on being faster, spectacular, innovative etc. That's how it has always worked, and it's about all you can do with such a division.

 

Just because something has always been... doesn't mean it always will. With a little bit of planning and imagination, I could absolutely see a cruiserweight show that is something more than just "faster, spectacular, innovative."

 

Making a rounded tv production of similar quality to the main wwe shows is out of the question because if any of the guys on it were worth anything on the mic to be able to pull off the entertainment side of things, they'd have found a place for them on the main rosters.

 

But in the past we've seen that that is not always the case. Take Sheamus; a big strong guy, good on the mic, awesome gimmick and is popular backstage. The guy debuted outside of the main shows. Often we've seen guys with potential (Ryder, Clay, Punk, Bryan etc) who have waiting in the wings on the minor shows, waiting for the chance to move up to the bigger shows. This could supply another route to the main shows. Why couldn't WWE use this as a means to build up a single cruiserweight guy, and then "promote" him after a year onto Raw or Smackdown? After all that's what they did with ECW, NXT and to a lesser extent, Superstars.

 

Besides Im not expecting the quality of said show to be the same as Raw or Smackdown. That would be absurd. But I could see it being like NXT where it's used as a potential launch pad for smaller, lighter guys who wouldn't usually have the opportunity.

 

There's a reason why Cruiserweight matches on US shows have been a special attraction rather than what shows are built around. It's because they're a niche...

 

"They're a niche." Exactly. The rules are changing now. WWE isn't just concerned with making a major TV show with mass market appeal (i.e. RAW)... with the dawn of a network they will be looking to cater for multiple niches. For this to be a success, they don't necessarily need to match the numbers of Raw or Smackdown... just a fraction of them. When you start accumulating multiple niche markets together and use them towards a single goal (say for example... promoting a PPV or increasing live event attendance), then the accumulation of all these niche audience can add up to something more.

 

 

Don't get me wrong.... this could all turn to crap if true. I'm just trying to be optimistic about this possible show. If it happens, the WWE might mess it up and product a dull, generic show that doesn't work. But there is a part of me that likes to think "hay this could work" because I'd rather look forward to something that could be good instead of just automatically presume it will be crap.

[Forrest]

With all this debate, I'd be interested in seeing what people's views on Velocity were. From what I've seen of opinion, many saw it as a generally enjoyable show, but it really is the closest example WWE have to this show. Yeah, they had Super Astros, but everyone hated that because it was in Spanish. I enjoyed the matches that I've seen though.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

With all this debate, I'd be interested in seeing what people's views on Velocity were. From what I've seen of opinion, many saw it as a generally enjoyable show, but it really is the closest example WWE have to this show. Yeah, they had Super Astros, but everyone hated that because it was in Spanish. I enjoyed the matches that I've seen though.

 

I tend to find with shows like Velocity, Heat, NXT, Superstars, etc... that WWE do a decent job of initially pushing them... and then lose interest very quickly. I remember the first few Heats, Velocity etc etc to be good fun with half decent matches... and then its ends up being a dumping ground. What makes it worse, is not only does it become a dumping ground... but WWE make no efforts whatsoever to try and combat this impression.

 

It's a shame, because really all they would have to do to combat this is reference something that happens on it once in a while. E.g. The New Age Outlaws partners up and debuted on Shotgun Saturday Night, and they showed clips of this happening on Raw when they began to pick up steam as a team. Having a little "cross pollination" of this nature between the A and B shows would do wonders for all the shows in my opinion.

 

So when Velocity first started... yeah it was good. But then eventually just whittled down to "meh" levels of disinterest.

[Big Rob]

So when Velocity first started... yeah it was good. But then eventually just whittled down to "meh" levels of disinterest.

Really? It's not like they ever put in any effort to Velocity, save for maybe the first week or so. I thought it was consistantly good, and bettwer towards the end when you'd get stuff like Regal vs Benoit and a bunch of London/Kendrick tags.

[PunkStep]

Any attempt to bring back Cruiserweight wrestling to the WWE would be a disaster as they would force those wrestlers to work within the WWE style which to be frank is not very Cruiserweight friendly.

 

Cruiserweight wrestling needs to be left to those promotions who know how promote it properly such as TNA, ROH, PWG, AAA, CMLL, NJPW, AJPW, Noah, Dragon Gate and other Japanese promotions.

Cruiserwight is a weight class, not a wrestling style class.

[Reznor]

If a cruiserweight division is introduced, they'll all have to adapt to however the WWE want it to be like. And I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to presume that a cruiserweight division would be marketed and hyped on being faster, spectacular, innovative etc. That's how it has always worked, and it's about all you can do with such a division.

 

Just because something has always been... doesn't mean it always will. With a little bit of planning and imagination, I could absolutely see a cruiserweight show that is something more than just "faster, spectacular, innovative."

I don't really want to pick at every line of your post, but i'll address this one, as it stands out at me and pretty much relates to the crux of my point;

 

With cruiserweight wrestling, yes, it is how it always will be. You could promote it for the next 20 years and it will still have the same status - it's seen as inferior to heavyweight wrestling, and in terms of US wrestling culture and traditions, understandably so. Cruiserweights will never amount to anything more than a sideshow in the grand scheme of things, no matter how good they are. They might be great fun, they might play a big part in making a show so popular, they might be making loads of $$$, but they'll always have their place. They'll be something a bit different, a change of pace to add some variety to a show and balance the card.

 

A cruiserweight division can never seriously amount to anything more than "faster, spectacular, innovative" because the whole reason for their existence is that they can show something different from the heavyweights. Those are the attributes and abilities they have to differentiate themselves and stand out. Take it away and you're left with little guys doing exactly the same as big guys, thus it's a dead duck right from the very beginning. That's the reason why pretty much every junior division of every large fed is and has been marketed as being exciting due to the speed, the moves, the athleticism, the flying and risktaking etc. - because that's all they can do which the heavyweights can't.

 

Run full shows of the stuff and fans will be burnt out or bored after a quarter of an hour; Slow it down to something resembling heavyweight style and it just becomes a pointless waste of time. That's why it has its place, and its place is as a special attraction on varied shows, not something to overexpose and focus whole programmes on.

 

With probably the greatest revolving door of cruiserweight talent in the latter half of the 90s, WCW got the cruiserweight balance spot on imo, and it's telling that with all the tv time they had, they never ran Pro, Worldwide, or Saturday night as cruiserweight only despite having more than enough to fill an hour a week. They knew how to showcase and make best use of the cruiserweights.

 

As I mentioned, I love good juniors wrestling, but it's definitely something that should be enjoyed and appreciated in moderation. Even if their roster was fantastic (which it won't be) a full hour of it every week is still too much, and I suspect that would be the case for the vast majority of fans who aren't 'Indy'/'Dragongate' type fans. If they are, then WWE is a bit of a bad word to a significant amount of them, (and they're already a pretty tiny niche in the first place), so I wouldn't put my mortgage on a whole lot of them signing up.

 

If they do go ahead with it, I would imagine ratings would be almost negligible after the novelty wore off. To get a cruiserweight show to be successful and worthwhile, they would have to do something(s) seriously drastic and revolutionary, like adding whole new themes and shifting the focus completely, because they won't sell it on the basis of cruiserweight wrestling alone.