Over the past few weeks, we have seen a few 205 Live stars appearing on Monday Night RAW. This includes Drake Maverick as the new manager for AOP. Drew Gulak was involved in the heel beatdown of the Shield over the past few weeks. It now looks like Lio Rush will be the manager/sidekick of Bobby Lashley moving forward.
I have had a lot of fans asking questions about what WWE is doing, so I thought that I would pass along my speculation.
Several people have suggested that this is a sign that 205 Live is going to get canceled. I don’t think that is going to be the case at all. I am on the side who thinks that this will end up being a good thing for the future of 205 Live.
It seems to me like WWE has decided that a way to boost ratings for 205 Live is to integrate some characters into weekly episodes of RAW. Several months ago, WWE was featuring the Cruiserweight’s on a weekly basis on RAW. This didn’t work though as they would appear in matches but there would be very little character development. Several months ago, WWE ended up removing all 205 Live stars from weekly episodes of RAW.
It seems to me at least, that WWE is attempting to develop some strong characters first. Fans who don’t watch 205 Live might be more inclined to watch the show after seeing the personalities of guys like Drake Maverick or Lio Rush on RAW. This seems like a better strategy than giving us a weekly Cruiserweight match where there are no real storylines. It would also be cool to see AOP or Bobby Lashley appear on 205 Live the odd time. They obviously wouldn’t wrestle but it could be fun to see some crossover between both shows.
It will be interesting to see how this strategy goes over the next few weeks. I am digging what they are doing so far though. I think that this will ultimately end up helping 205 Live if they continue down this path.
What do you think WWE is doing the 205 Live? Let us know in the comment section below.
On a related note, here is the latest rumor on Mick Foley’s role as special guest referee.