Ambulance Chaser Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 Absolutely loved that Buddy Murphy segment, so well done, sports like feel to the training package of him trying to cut down to 205 and then the pay off when he made it. He looks fucking brilliant, monster in this division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrodyGraham Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Ambulance Chaser said: Absolutely loved that Buddy Murphy segment, so well done, sports like feel to the training package of him trying to cut down to 205 and then the pay off when he made it. He looks fucking brilliant, monster in this division. Me too. One thing I've felt WWE have really dropped the ball with is the absence of guys cutting down to go for the gold. Chad Gable is crying out for a spotlight and he's not the only one. But yeah, as I've said before the notion that they had nothing for a guy like Murphy feels like the most ridiculous thing, so hopefully he'll turn some heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 There's so many small problems holding the show back. By far the largest is how/where they record it. I completely agree with everyone else about recording it after Smackdown but I also think that it would hugely benefit from being recorded in a smaller venue with a specific crowd. Hell, record the matches at house shows! It needs a different feel. That's why NXT works so well IMO - it's weekly tv show has a different feel, lighting, crowd from the main shows and feels more niche in a good way. I actually thought the Zo Train era was useful in differentiating out characters, and they need to keep building on that. Gulag looks great in a suit but completely default wrestler in his current gear. If you look back to WCW's Cruiserweight division, they were a right bunch of lunatic characters and costumes. The whole thing felt very carnival. They also need to keep the cruisers off Raw. There's nothing special about 205 Live if you can see the same action (albeit truncated in time) on a Monday. It's definitely better than it WAS, but it still feels terribly missable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrodyGraham Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 I'd like to see the cruisers integrated into Raw more if I'm honest, just in a more organic way. Have a couple of 205 guys form a tag team and go on a run. Shit, if the Revival are still all 'No Flips, Just Fists' give them a flippy dude to punch! Have a cruiser go for the IC belt. These guys are still in the back, they should be interacting with other wrestlers. There's ways to present these guys next to larger talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 That's one of the criticisms that pops up a lot, yet 15 years ago, the opposite was being criticised. "Keep the cruisers away from the heavyweights, give them their own show" everywhere. People seem to want the cruisers to go up against non cruisers more, but then it's not really a division is it. And the moment Titus O'Neil beats Lince Dorado in a two minute match there'd be an twitter meltdown I'm sure. Who do we think is going to be in the tournament finals? Roderick Strong vs. Kalisto is my prediction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 I've enjoyed it a lot more since the reboot, but at the moment everyone has a purpose and every match has some importance. They're obviously presenting it as a full-on 'wrestling' show, which is fine for now, but I'm not sure how they're going to sustain interest after this title tournament. Mustafa Ali vs Ariya Daivari in a 15-minute wrestling match with no stakes or purpose doesn't sound great. I still think the tournament final will be Cedric Alexander vs Mustafa Ali, but I hope I'm wrong. It just seems like they've bookended the tournament with those two guys who they perceive to be the 'fan-favourites'. My main hope is that the tournament can rehabilitate Jack Gallagher. He went from a hightlight of the division to a completely missable afterthought in no time at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 2 hours ago, The Dart said: Who do we think is going to be in the tournament finals? Roderick Strong vs. Kalisto is my prediction. I genuinely can't think of a final worthy of a WrestleMania spot from the current roster whatsoever. Neville had so much more momentum & heat and in Austin Aries they had a bigger star than these lot by some distance, and that only made the pre-show. They've built Cedric Alexander up as a bit of a pre-tournament favourite haven't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 I'm sure the tournament final will only make the Mania pre-show, anyway. No chance anyone involved in this roster is making the main show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 Oh I know, but you'd still want a strong match. Can't see one from the current 205 Live roster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 From a pure marketing perspective, regardless of talent, I can't imagine WWE leaving a 205 Live match off WM - it's a division that needs exposure, and WM has the most eyeballs on it of any WWE product during the year. Not a good advert for it if WWE considers its best to not even be worth a Mania match, even if it really isn't worth one. It'll probably be the opener. Cruiserweight matches tend to be good for warming up the crowd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted February 15, 2018 Author Awards Moderator Share Posted February 15, 2018 (edited) It’ll be the match they pretend is going to be on WrestleMania right up until the weekend of, when they dump it onto the preshow “for time”. I’d rather see the Usos finally get on a proper Mania card than any cruiserweight match. Cedric is definitely getting to the final, not sure who they’ll put him with though. Maybe TJP? (also, I’ve been assuming this is a 16 man tournament - but that means the first round will be over next week and the tournament would be done well before Mania... is it a 32 man tournament? But then they’ll definitely run out of cruiserweights to put in it...) Edited February 15, 2018 by HarmonicGenerator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted February 15, 2018 Share Posted February 15, 2018 (edited) 9 more matches in the tournament....7 episodes left before Mania. Both semi finals take place on the episode before Mania would be my guess. Edited February 15, 2018 by The Dart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted February 15, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 15, 2018 If it were up to me, I'd have the semis 2 weeks before Mania, then your last show is to build the determined match (through traditional WWE means like putting the 2 Mania opponents together as a tag team or letting them pick each other's opponents, naturally). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philjax Posted February 16, 2018 Share Posted February 16, 2018 Well I'm calling Buddy Murphy based off that hype package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 16, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted February 16, 2018 4 hours ago, Philjax said: Well I'm calling Buddy Murphy based off that hype package. If they keep producing stuff like that, I'll be right behind him too. It was excellent. How little it takes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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