Staying Hyped With Mikey: The 205 Live Conundrum

                     In this hyper drive edition of Staying Hyped, Mikey offers up his views of what WWE Network's newest program 205 Live needs in order to capture a sustained audience!  You can follow him on Twitter @TheHypeStepBro



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Looks like half the Smackdown audience bailed in the first 15 minutes of 205 Live.


Crazy to me to bail on a show I paid for.


But the Cruiserweights haven't hit with me either. I like Kendrick and TJ Perkins. Not much else excites me yet.


If you're WWE it's not time to panic yet. But I might start considering ways to get the division over.
I'd say "do crazy stuff like Lucha Underground", but that's usually my answer to things.

I think I may have nailed down the problem, or at least the weakness.


Wrestling sells characters first and foremost.


With the Cruiserweight Classic and now 205 Live, WWE is trying to sell a style of wrestling instead.
How many people when they watch wrestling even consider the style of moves being presented?
"Oh, that guy's doing Strong Style, that guy's doing Lucha..."
Shit, how many can even NAME styles? Those two were all I know, and I'm a big fan.

Why did I HAVE to figure out a way to get to last year's Hell in a Cell, and Wrestlemania 32?


Because I knew The Undertaker would be there. A character I really like and wanted to see.

What keeps me watching Raw, Smackdown, NXT, Lucha Underground, TNA?

Characters.


Rollins, Jericho, Owens, Ambrose, AJ , Enzo & Cass, Johnny Mundo, Pentagon Dark, Vampiro, Eli Drake.


Those are all the guys who I wanna see, keep me coming back to the products.

So the problem with 205 Live is they're selling that it's gonna be all this crazy high flying action, but outside of Brian Kendrick and TJ Perkins, there hasn't get a push to get the characters of the division over.

So I think many fans see the pitch but think "Well, I'm supposed to see high-flying action anyway. Where are the CHARACTERS for me to invest in doing all that cool stuff?"


And that's where thus far where the division hasn't delivered.


205 Live has plenty of time to get over.
But WWE shouldn't expect a pitch solely about the style of wrestling to get over with beyond whom it has: about half a Smackdown audience who love to consume a certain style of wrestling, not just the characters therein.