First 205 Live House Show Cancelled

[jagilki]

Ed Nordholm: "Were we running a show in Rhode Island?"

Anthem stooge: "No, why?"

Ed: "Funny, I read about a wrestling house show being cancelled, and just assumed it was us."

[The Unconquered Sun]

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

If they ran in small arenas with a small roster, it'd probably be a really great series of shows.

The exact thing ruining the division is being thrown onto Raw and after Smackdown. Be a big indie.

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Matt and Bray didn't boost interest in this??

[Starshine]

Jan 5, 2018 16:30:39 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

Jan 5, 2018 15:00:40 GMT -5 @jdogindy said:

I haven't laughed this much since last night when I made a "Willie still loves ya, O great one!" comment while watching Dragon Ball GT.

3 matches (2 from an ice cold property) in a rinky dink bathtub at Moose Gallbladder was going to sell like hotcakes?

By the way... Newport does have a huge arena & the OP pointed out, but I'm thinking they'll cancel the following Poughkeepsie show, which is a literal bathtub.

From the info for these:

1) People laugh about the size of the Ryan Center and thinking they could sell it out, but WWE DID sell out the Ryan Center for NXT in the past (the second show did worse, but it's absolutely possible for WWE to sell out that arena for the developmental shows.) Heck, it's one of the biggest arenas WWE can get on super-short notice and have some chance of success.

Not with a brand as cold as 205 Live. You can not compare it to NXT since the latter has had significant buzz and interest from hardcore fans. 205 Live has none of the underground coolness that NXT has, and also no real “stars” to its name. There’s not a snowballs chance in hell that the brand as it is today could fill up an arena like that on its own.

[Reflecto]

Jan 5, 2018 19:54:48 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Jan 5, 2018 16:30:39 GMT -5 Reflecto said:

From the info for these:

1) People laugh about the size of the Ryan Center and thinking they could sell it out, but WWE DID sell out the Ryan Center for NXT in the past (the second show did worse, but it's absolutely possible for WWE to sell out that arena for the developmental shows.) Heck, it's one of the biggest arenas WWE can get on super-short notice and have some chance of success.

Not with a brand as cold as 205 Live. You can not compare it to NXT since the latter has had significant buzz and interest from hardcore fans. 205 Live has none of the underground coolness that NXT has, and also no real “stars” to its name. There’s not a snowballs chance in hell that the brand as it is today could fill up an arena like that on its own.

Even with those, some things to keep in mind:

1) The Ryan Center doesn't fill out like it would be in the picture you saw. In actuality, the arena is always made in full for URI basketball games and cut in half for non-basketball events. So, the picture given there is twice what the "real" arena would be and has been for it.

As far as 205 Live, it's hard since they didn't have real "stars", but it's countered by people like Enzo Amore (unpopular, but a legit star to people and still has the underground cred from NXT), and the Woken Matt/Bray Wyatt feud for "underground buzz" and a legit name.

They probably wouldn't fill it up (the second NXT show they ran didn't do well), but it's far closer than you'd think, especially since Rhode Island is always a really good market for WWE (usually selling out Providence without a problem.)

[Joe Neglia]

205 was designed to be Vince's "competition" to HHH's NXT and it has to be eating him up alive that his version is tanking so hard.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Serious answer - Well I mean they got a bunch of injuries and your champ has been sick so I assume that played a big part

Joke answer - Blame Enzo

[Fade]

How is such a rich and powerful company so f***ing stupid at times...Lol

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Scrap the Brand, keep the belt on RAW, you can still have competitors compete for it but stop having it in a bubble and involve more talent.

Any other talents not immediately involved can go to Smackdown and fill out the Midcard Scene and develop further in NXT...

[Nic Nemeth]

I've been saying this for years now, just cancel the Cruiserweight division and retire the title.

Hideo Itami has proven he can compete with regular people like Ohno and not suck, just throw him on SD to compete for the US Title. Kendrick is a former WWE Champion, make him and Gallagher a cog in the tag division. Gulak is bigger than most cruisers, just pretend he's a midcarder. Same goes for Alexander. Neese and Daivari can be part of the tag division. Ali can wrestle on SD and no one would notice how small he is. Team Dorado and Malik up as another tag team. TJP can go back to dabbing at home. Tozawa can team with Apollo Crews. Enzo was already a part of the main roster.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jan 6, 2018 2:34:47 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Scrap the Brand, keep the belt on RAW, you can still have competitors compete for it but stop having it in a bubble and involve more talent.

Scrapping 205 Live would make the Cruiserweights even more dead in the water than they already are. At least with 205 Live, the talent get consistent promo time and long enough matches to make something of substance. If the Cruiserweights only appeared on main roster shows, nothing would be allotted enough time to get any sort of traction whatsoever.

Take for example, Drew Gulak. It took months for his Powerpoint presentations to get referenced outside of the 205 Live bubble, and this is one of the few guys on the show with any real momentum in 2018.

Better yet, take Tony Nese, who actually is quite fun on 205 Live, but you wouldn't know it from his seemingly bi-annual apperance on Raw. If there is anyone reading this right now who hasn't watched 205 Live since....Wrestlemania or so. If you haven't seen 205 Live since that time, did you know that Tony Nese has a gimmick where he counts his abs? I think a good 30% of this board has no idea that he has this gimmick.

If guys like Nese and Gulak absolutely need the 205 Live platform to sustain any momentum, I would hate to see what happens if you got rid of the program.

[chronocross]

Even if they didn't have some of their roster injured, I doubt it would have done much better ticket sales.

[Deleted]

Jan 6, 2018 0:15:48 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

205 was designed to be Vince's "competition" to HHH's NXT and it has to be eating him up alive that his version is tanking so hard.

Its funny how this is more & more like the Light Heavyweight division that failed spectacularly. Only without a Scott Putski.

[EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese]

Has anyone mentioned the basketball game scheduled for 11am the next day at that arena being a possible factor for WWE canceling? That’s a 12 hour overnight turnaround for WWE to pack up their stuff and for the University of Rhode Island people to get their court set up in game condition. Problem is, I don’t know what was scheduled first, the basketball game or the wrestling.

(History would then dictate that they host the show at La Salle University’s arena in Philadelphia and spend it throwing shade at URI)

[Joe Neglia]

Jan 6, 2018 11:00:34 GMT -5 EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese said:

Has anyone mentioned the basketball game scheduled for 11am the next day at that arena being a possible factor for WWE canceling? That’s a 12 hour overnight turnaround for WWE to pack up their stuff and for the University of Rhode Island people to get their court set up in game condition. Problem is, I don’t know what was scheduled first, the basketball game or the wrestling.

(History would then dictate that they host the show at La Salle University’s arena in Philadelphia and spend it throwing shade at URI)

WWE can usually clear a house show in about 3-4 hours; they wouldn't be concerned with the turnaround part for anything the next day, that'd be the arena's problem.

[Reflecto]

Jan 6, 2018 11:00:34 GMT -5 EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese said:

Has anyone mentioned the basketball game scheduled for 11am the next day at that arena being a possible factor for WWE canceling? That’s a 12 hour overnight turnaround for WWE to pack up their stuff and for the University of Rhode Island people to get their court set up in game condition. Problem is, I don’t know what was scheduled first, the basketball game or the wrestling.

(History would then dictate that they host the show at La Salle University’s arena in Philadelphia and spend it throwing shade at URI)

Keep in mind as well- the basketball game was also absolutely scheduled first.

This show was done on a shoestring a month ago, for one- and the Ryan Center is URI's home arena so URI sports take top priority over everything else scheduled at the arena.

Even then, as was said- WWE can do a 3-4 hour turnaround to break down one- and the biggest problem is the fact that the Ryan Center cuts the arena in half for events instead of the full arena for URI basketball (but even that's basically "they throw a curtain down".

[BlackoutCreature]

At one point I was seriously considering going to the show in Poughkeepsie, if only out of curiosity of what NXT and possibly indy talents they'd bring in to fill out the card. When I found out about Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt I lost interest fast.

[Manute Bol]

Jan 5, 2018 18:24:50 GMT -5 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger said:

Matt and Bray didn't boost interest in this??

Weird how two guys literally laughing at each other for a month hasn't lead to an increase in ticket sales.

[xCompackx]

Jan 6, 2018 23:57:10 GMT -5 Manute Bol said:

Jan 5, 2018 18:24:50 GMT -5 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger said:

Matt and Bray didn't boost interest in this??

Weird how two guys literally laughing at each other for a month hasn't lead to an increase in ticket sales.

Yeah, I am always up for a silly Broken/Woken Matt promo, but actual matches are far from the selling point of the character and you can't really make a profit on promos.