Since the return of the Cruiserweight division in WWE, to call it underwhelming and wasted potential would be an understatement. With the talent of guys like Cedric Alexander, Neville, Akira Tozawa, Rich Swann and many others, something just isn’t connecting with the fans.
WWE present the Cruiserweight division as something separate from the rest of RAW. Whilst you can give credit to WWE for trying something different, by differentiating the division is also self-defeating. There is no need to sensationalise the ring with different ropes, lighting and canvas, you just need to treat them like normal competitors on the show.
The Cruiserweights have their own program in 205 Live, unfortunately the show hasn’t become a hit in its first 8 months. The big vision WWE had for 205 Live simply hasn’t eventuated. The character development is basically non existent and it doesn’t help when a lot of the guys are relatively new to the WWE audience.
Yes, it doesn’t happen overnight and 205 Live is still basically in the infancy stages, but by giving the performers barely five minutes on RAW each week and being placed on pre show matches at PPVs, it doesn’t give the division the respect and exposure it needs to make fans want to watch 205 Live every week. 205 Live is basically being treated as an afterthought, the small stints of Cruiserweights on RAW doesn’t help the performers gain any interest from fans to go and want to watch 205 Live.
Another downfall of the Cruiserweight division is that we don’t get to see all of the matches we want to see because of the Cruiserweights being kept solely in their own division. Majority of the Cruiserweights could go on to have great matches and rivalries with other guys on the roster, such as Rollins, Balor, Zayn, Owens, Aj Styles and many others.
In fact, Cedric Alexander and Aj Styles had an outstanding match in PWX back in 2014 before both made their way to WWE. The fact that the Cruiserweights have really no interaction or matches with anyone on the RAW and SmackDown rosters make it so uninteresting to the audice based on it being a limited presence.
Just this weekend, Austin Aries requested and was granted his release from the company. Reports suggest that he had grown to be frustrated and unhappy about being stuck in the Cruiserweight division and saw more for himself outside of his role on 205 Live. Which is a prime example of wasted talent and wasted opportunity.
In closing, it’s not that the talent isn’t there, it’s just being misused and put in positions that doesn’t help get the talent or the division over with the audience. We have seen many Cruiserweights like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Rey Mysterio and many others go onto have great careers and achieve World Championships. The Cruiserweights need a chance to showcase their talents, but unless WWE gives the competitors time and opportunity, unfortunately nothing will change for the Cruiserweight division.
