Road Dogg on the Goal of WWE 205 Live, Why It Didn’t Pan Out

– During a recent edition of his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Brian “Road Dogg” James spoke about the now-defunct WWE 205 Live show and WWE’s cruiserweight division. Road Dogg noted that since the show only aired on WWE Network, fans had to really search out for the show to watch it, and it didn’t translate into long-term success for the brand. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Road Dogg on the goal of 205 Live: “There’s so many people out there that are great that are under 200 pounds. Look at both rosters right now, [they] are just chocka block full of them. So, I think it was an opportunity to get that kind of talent, the smaller than the normal WWE talent on WWE programming, and get them under contract.”

On how 205 Live became like a hidden gem: “We talked about all this. Do we make the third hour of Raw 205 Live? There’s a million conversations, and call it WWE Turbo or something. I don’t know what we were out to get; it was almost a hidden little gem. You had to really go in there and find 205 to watch. I think if you go back on there right now and watch it on the archives, there is great, and I mean great, wrestling matches on there.”

WWE 205 Live ran from November 2016 to February 2022. The Cruiserweight Title was eventually transferred over to the NXT roster and later unified with the NXT North American Championship, effectively dissolving the cruiserweight division.