End of CW Title?

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Nov 25, 2021 21:48:29 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Nov 25, 2021 16:54:11 GMT -5 CeilingFan said:

They should retire the Cruiserweight,  24/7, and WWE Women's Tag Team Championships.

Honestly, the women's tag belts being retired would only make the problems with the women's division worse. Like, we'd just get the same matches we are already but with even less for anyone who isn't the Four Horsewomen, Asuka, or Bianca to do.

I would merge them with the NXT Women's Tag Titles, and just have them primarily on NXT with occasional appearances on Raw and Smackdown, since NXT is the only brand that keeps their teams intact.

[Sparvid]

Well...

[Mozenrath]

I suppose I can't say I'm surprised.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Yeah, the Cruiserweight title just doesn't have a purpose now that the vast majority of Cruiserweights are gone, and the remaining ones are all in tag teams and stables like KUSHIDA, Jiro, Strong, and Legado Del Fantasma. The title just isn't needed now.

Although if you want a laugh, go to WWE.com's list of Superstars and try the 205 Live filter. It has some not surprising names listed like Carmelo Hayes, Ikemen Jiro, Greyson Waller, and Santos Escobar. But also among them is the likes of Duke Hudson, Odyssey Jones, and Josh Briggs. Also several female talent are listed for some reason. Lastly, everyone in Diamond Mine is listed...except the one who actually holds the title belonging to the show.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

I mean, fitting that two belts with a pretty cursed history of title holders get to unite as one cursed hunk of metal

So 205 Live is gonna die right? It'd been on life support anyway but the Cruiserweight Division is once again dead. If 205 Live survives it should probably be re-named... y'know since NEITHER part of the name is actually true anymore?

[HMARK Center]

What's sad to me is that I do think that weight class divisions can work. Numerous puro promotions show it can be done; I'm currently binging to catch up on NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors tournament and, hey, it's been a great watch so far!

But again, like anything else you need to actually give the belt a purpose, whether directly in kayfabe or a general mission statement for it outside of kayfabe. The gist in a lot of puro is that most of the competitors who would compete for the Junior Heavyweight belts are allowed to compete for the heavyweight belts, too, but that the heavyweights can't fight for the junior belts without dropping weight. That allows the heavyweight belts to remain the main event draws, but also allows the junior belts to serve a double purpose, giving smaller wrestlers a prize to focus on long term and also serving as a stepping stone for younger wrestlers who start their careers smaller but gradually add weight over the years and eventually "graduate" to heavyweight.

I'm not saying WWE would have to necessarily copy that approach, but there are things they could do to make it interesting, they just basically elect not to.

Sidenote: any idea what this might mean for KUSHIDA? I miss that dude a lot in New Japan, but also don't want to see him have to deal with getting cut like so many other people in WWE have the last couple of years.

[brettappedout (BLM)]

SRS has said many time NXT had big plans for the CW Title/Division and buliding it up more with Roddy as the main guy.

Now this was before the Khan Cutter hit and Vince said f*** you Paul (probably).

I don't know if that's all SRS knows/said, but if he knows I'd be interested

As for unification match and getting rid of the Title. It doesn't bother me now.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I mean, I'm not entirely sure that the two hour developmental show needs two men's singles titles, let alone three so I'm fine with the unification. It's better than Gacy winning it and just screwing around with it until it got retired. I just wish it received better treatment over the past few years. Even once it was moved to NXT, it never really felt like it mattered. So many of the main eventers were cruiserweights themselves and never bothered with it so it always kind of had no purpose.

[Deleted]

Lio and Angel had a good feud over it, but I think the last time I truly cared about the title was when Enzo's dumbass held it, before he got himself shitcanned.

[RI Richmark]

At least the title is going out in a more dignified way than relinquished by Hornswoggle than forgotten. Or just plan forgotten like the Light Heavyweight title (twice!).

[JoDaNa1281]

Nov 25, 2021 22:52:13 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Nov 25, 2021 21:48:29 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Honestly, the women's tag belts being retired would only make the problems with the women's division worse. Like, we'd just get the same matches we are already but with even less for anyone who isn't the Four Horsewomen, Asuka, or Bianca to do.

I would merge them with the NXT Women's Tag Titles, and just have them primarily on NXT with occasional appearances on Raw and Smackdown, since NXT is the only brand that keeps their teams intact.

They should merge them. But, honestly...they should've never created the NXT Women's Tag Titles. They should've just used the WWE ones on NXT more, since there's barely enough teams for one set of titles, let alone two.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Dec 22, 2021 13:05:42 GMT -5 @dax said:

Lio and Angel had a good feud over it, but I think the last time I truly cared about the title was when Enzo's dumbass held it, before he got himself shitcanned.

The title died then, really.

[MrElijah]

Dec 22, 2021 13:20:43 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

At least the title is going out in a more dignified way than relinquished by Hornswoggle than forgotten. Or just plan forgotten like the Light Heavyweight title (twice!).

The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship has a very interesting history. It starts as a belt in the UWA in Mexico, ends up in Michinoku Pro Wrestling then gets put in the J-Crown, via that gets defended on WCW TV, then the WWF wants it back for it's "I can't believe it's not WCW Cruiserweight" division, flounders despite some pretty good talent holding that title then gets Unified with the WCW Cruiserweight strap and they continue that title's lineage.

[Feyrhausen]

Dec 22, 2021 15:53:55 GMT -5 MrElijah said:

Dec 22, 2021 13:20:43 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

At least the title is going out in a more dignified way than relinquished by Hornswoggle than forgotten. Or just plan forgotten like the Light Heavyweight title (twice!).

The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship has a very interesting history. It starts as a belt in the UWA in Mexico, ends up in Michinoku Pro Wrestling then gets put in the J-Crown, via that gets defended on WCW TV, then the WWF wants it back for it's "I can't believe it's not WCW Cruiserweight" division, flounders despite some pretty good talent holding that title then gets Unified with the WCW Cruiserweight strap and they continue that title's lineage.

I dont think it was ever actually unified with the cruiserweight belt. IIRC X Pac was champ before the Invasion ended but he got hurt. So the belts were never unified and when he returned in 2002 the belt was never mentioned again.

Edit. I just read up and there was planned to be a unification match at Survivor Series but it was canceled because of X Pacs injury. He defended the belt on some house shows in 2002 before he returned to TV but once he did return they decided to retire the belt without any unification.

[MrElijah]

Dec 22, 2021 15:58:18 GMT -5 Feyrhausen said:

Dec 22, 2021 15:53:55 GMT -5 MrElijah said:

The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship has a very interesting history. It starts as a belt in the UWA in Mexico, ends up in Michinoku Pro Wrestling then gets put in the J-Crown, via that gets defended on WCW TV, then the WWF wants it back for it's "I can't believe it's not WCW Cruiserweight" division, flounders despite some pretty good talent holding that title then gets Unified with the WCW Cruiserweight strap and they continue that title's lineage.

I dont think it was ever actually unified with the cruiserweight belt. IIRC X Pac was champ before the Invasion ended but he got hurt. So the belts were never unified and when he returned in 2002 the belt was never mentioned again.

Huh. I think you might be right about that. It's amazing that Jr. Heavyweight belts never seem to work in the WWF/E. Those Tiger Mask I/Dynamite Kid matches? Over the WWF Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Yeah they happened in New Japan but still.

[Main Event Mark]

Maybe they'll swerve us and end the NA title and keep the Cruiserweight.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

In its place, they should make 205 Live Women's Title. Valetina Feroz' hard work deserved to be rewarded.

[Bad Moon]

Nov 25, 2021 19:59:33 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

Nov 25, 2021 17:43:30 GMT -5 Hypnosis said:

They worked back in the Monday Night Wars, but with so many big men out there doing high spots like the cruiserweights now, there's definitely no need for those kinds of titles anymore.

It also doesn't need to be when you have guys like Bryan, Balor, Punk, and Kofi being top of card top title guys. A specialized rules division sure but locking people into a division based on weight just doesn't work anymore.

One thing that I've always wanted to see any promotion try would be a submission-only championship.

Like the ROH Pure title but good.

[Deleted]

Dec 22, 2021 15:58:18 GMT -5 Feyrhausen said:

Dec 22, 2021 15:53:55 GMT -5 MrElijah said:

The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship has a very interesting history. It starts as a belt in the UWA in Mexico, ends up in Michinoku Pro Wrestling then gets put in the J-Crown, via that gets defended on WCW TV, then the WWF wants it back for it's "I can't believe it's not WCW Cruiserweight" division, flounders despite some pretty good talent holding that title then gets Unified with the WCW Cruiserweight strap and they continue that title's lineage.

I dont think it was ever actually unified with the cruiserweight belt. IIRC X Pac was champ before the Invasion ended but he got hurt. So the belts were never unified and when he returned in 2002 the belt was never mentioned again.

Edit. I just read up and there was planned to be a unification match at Survivor Series but it was canceled because of X Pacs injury. He defended the belt on some house shows in 2002 before he returned to TV but once he did return they decided to retire the belt without any unification.

Ironically, the fact that the Cruiserweight Championship WWE decided was worth keeping instead would meet the exact same fate (retired without any ceremony) says a lot about the company's mindset towards belts of that nature.

[r.]

Seems like yesterday they announced that amazing tournament for the belt and people were hyped for the division to return.