There has been a lot of talk lately about the WWE canceling the 205 Live show and taking many of the stars on that show and putting them on NXT. 205 has long been railed as a failed experiment and something that is coming to an end, If and when that actually happens fans have been getting mixed signals from the WWE.
But one thought I have been having isn’t if the show was successful or not but did it do damage and leave fans not believing the idea anymore. I’ve heard since the beginnings of 205 Live that many of the guys featured on the show weren’t exactly 205 pounds or less and that we were being lied to. Guys like Tony Neese, Buddy Murphy, or Mike Kannelis always seemed a bit bigger than the 205 weight limit promised. The WWE has never been big on guys who were actually that size so a lot of fans have wondered if the 205 weight limit is actually true. I’ve wondered that a few times myself.
An interesting story being told is that the WWE did enforce that, former Cruiserweight Classic winner T.J. Perkins says that while the 205 Live wrestlers did have weight limits and have to be weighed ahead of time for that, many of the wrestlers failed the weighing in process and many came in overweight. If they actually competed above the 205-pound weight limit or not is not known, but Perkins did put it out there that the 205 weight limit for cruiserweights was tracked but broken many times. At least in the early days. At this point, the WWE doesn’t seem to care as much so it doesn’t seem as much if a wrestler is actually 205 pounds or not, the WWE will just say that he is and that will be that.
But they wouldn’t be the only ones who stretched the truth a bit. Remember the cruiserweights of WCW back in the day? I wondered if they had any people that were above whatever limits they had, especially when guys like La Parka and many others were getting title matches when they carried extra poundage or go even further back and remember the WCW Lighthevyweight title? When WCW had classic matches like Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger? Most people believed they made weight but remember when they tried to convince us that Johnny B. Badd was a light heavyweight and that he was “trimming down” to try and qualify for the belt? Jim Ross did have a habit of trying to convince fans of things even when it took the believability of fans and stretched it like a rubber band. I still don’t think that Marc Mero was a light heavyweight. He looked a bit bigger than that, although in his Johnny B. Badd gimmick his weight wasn’t the only thing people wondered about.
It isn’t just an American thing with WWE or WCW, New Japan Pro Wrestling has a Junior Heavyweight belt and fans don’t question many of their names, although even the announcers question if Shingo Takagi or Taiji Ishimori is still under the weight limit of 100 Kilos (around 220 pounds). It doesn’t help matters when you have someone like Kevin Kelly or whoever is doing the English language broadcasts wonder as we do about these guys. If the announcers wonder if the guy still meets the weight limit than what are the fans supposed to think?
Maybe the answer can be found with what TNA/Impact Wrestling did with the X-Division title. “It’s not about weight limits. It’s no limits” was the phrase uttered during most of the title’s run and it held true with guys like Samoa Joe or A.J. Styles holding the title along with smaller guys like Kid Kash or Amazing Red. Even Pierre Carl Ouellet won the title wearing a mask and put on good matches despite people knowing he was bigger than a light heavyweight. The point was the title was about the action, not the size of the guys in the ring. Unfortunately, Size is a big deal to the WWE so they will mention how big a guy is or how much he ways, whether that is part of “Kayfabe” or not.
But that wasn’t WWE. The WWE (and Vince McMahon himself) have this perception that they think they are smarter than wrestling fans and if they say a guy in under 205 pounds than we must believe them right? If you think otherwise then there must be something wrong with you.
But then I remember the previous version of the WWE Cruiserweight title was last held by Hornswoggle and we had to buy into him beating regular-sized guys every week. So guys like Buddy Murphy being a few pounds overweight for the division isn’t entirely so bad is it?
