Cedric Alexander Remembers Why Vince McMahon Moved 205 Live Tapings To After Smackdown

When 205 Live began, it was taped before episodes of Smackdown. However, it was later moved so that it would be taped after the show. In an interview with Busted Open Radio (via Fightful), Cedric Alexander spoke about why Vince McMahon made the change after a month.

He said: “We all knew we were in a tough position because we were usually filmed after SmackDown. So after they’ve seen A.J. (Styles) and Randy (Orton) and all that kind of stuff, yeah, you’re gonna stick around for these smaller guys. These new guys, come check ‘em out and you’re like… we gotta turn it up to 11. Well, funny story, there was maybe a month or so, a few weeks where they filmed 205 before SmackDown. The issue with that though is the crowds were dead by the time SmackDown started. Legit. I think the last time they did it, that was me and Drew Gulak for the Cruiserweight Championship on 205 Live, and we killed it, tore the house down and that was the spot when we did the suplex to the outside and landed on my feet and then suplexed him on the floor. It was great, but, I remember at the time, Vince (McMahon) was like, ‘We can’t keep doing that, because by the time SmackDown starts, the crowd’s not reacting how they should for a Randy opening promo’ or whatever the case was so, they X’d that and moved us back to after SmackDown… Me, Buddy (Matthews), (Mustafa) Ali were killing it before SmackDown and they were like, alright, time to cut that out, boys. You’re killing Randy’s promo time.“