Recently, rumors have been going around that WWE would be adding tag team titles to 205 Live at some point after WrestleMania.
That might have been just hearsay and nonsense, but since that happened, there’s been a possible belt design that is currently unconfirmed as well as an effort from WWE’s part to pay a little more attention to forming tag teams for this division.
A Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship is something I don’t personally think is necessary, and I can imagine that it would get lost in the shuffle very, very quickly, if not just linger around and have almost no variety to really sustain itself.
However, I think it’s worth examining the possible options for which teams might exist in this division, just in case all the news is legitimate and these titles are coming our way.
Some of this is flat out obvious and some of it is pure speculation, but therein lies the fun to try to imagine how WWE might pair people up and why, so let’s take a look at some possible teams that could be forming or becoming an even stronger unit than what they already are.
The Lucha House Party
Ever since Kalisto left the title picture, he’s been hanging around with Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik. This has gone on long enough that they are as legitimate of a stable as they can get without having some kind of official group name.
If this were a regular tag team on the Raw and SmackDown roster, I would be more inclined to like the idea of a full-on stable of masked wrestlers, but since 205 Live has a smaller pool of talent to draw from, I’m actually hoping there is a split of sorts.
I’d love for Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik to turn heel and become the villainous luchadores, while Sin Cara can come back into the fold for 205 Live to reform The Lucha Dragons with Kalisto, as it’s not like Sin Cara is going to be doing anything of note in singles competition on SmackDown any time soon.
That is just a wish, though, as for now, the three luchadores are being treated as a tight trio of friends, and no dissension has been teased whatsoever.
Akira Tozawa and Hideo Itami
This is the other team that has been formed recently, and I think it doesn’t really come off the most politically correct, as it really feels like they just paired up the two Japanese guys for the sake that they’re Japanese.
Granted, if you were to ask me who would be better partners for either of them, I don’t think there are people to fill those slots right now, so I’ll give credit where it is due that this might still be the best option for both men.
I’m hoping Tozawa shows off more of his humor and makes himself “the funny one” to offset Itami’s overall drab personality that seems to revolve around him scowling and telling people to respect him.
We saw a bit of that on this week’s episode, and I’d like to see more of it going forward.
If they can find a balance between those two ideas, this could be fun, but if not, I don’t think this will be a team at the forefront of the title scene.
The United Kingdom Crew
Here’s where WWE can play around with some different pairings, as there is enough history behind five different people that can potentially get involved in each other’s dealings.
Tyler Bate has competed for 205 Live with this current tournament, but his other half of Moustache Mountain has not. I’d assume the main reason Trent Seven hasn’t been seen is because he’s currently billed at 216 lbs, but Buddy Murphy has proven that cutting weight to get in the cruiserweight division is not something unreachable.
Those two could definitely be put together if Seven is able to drop those 11 pounds, but even if he isn’t, there are still others who Bate could have as a partner, including Mark Andrews, who should be a mainstay of the brand at this point.
That seems more likely to me than the next suggestion, but it’s not too crazy to think about, which is Tyler Bate putting aside his differences with Pete Dunne and forming a tag team with him. This could be primarily based on mutual respect after having their series of awesome matches together, particularly as Dunne has been playing up more of a tweener/babyface role than a pure heel.
Then again, Dunne is currently teaming with Roderick Strong in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and elsewhere in NXT, and as Strong is in the mix for 205 Live, we could get some kind of a combo like Dunne/Strong and Bate/Seven or Bate/Andrews to get two teams out of the United Kingdom division (even though one of those guys is an American).
The Brian Kendrick and Gentleman Jack Gallagher or TJP
It might be a while before The Brian Kendrick is back in the ring, but when he does return, he can either pick up where he left off in his alliance with Gentleman Jack Gallagher, or he can go even further back in time to his former partnership with TJP.
I never quite understood the Kendrick/Gallagher cohesion, so I’m hoping that duo is no longer a thing, but I’m not so certain I’d like TJP to be saddled up with a partner, either.
Part of me would really rather see all three of these guys on their own until something else happens with a character change or a new member of the roster coming along.
The Singh Brothers
This is one that I feel is a guarantee, once Samir is fully healed and cleared to return to in-ring competition.
He and his brother Sunil were part of the Cruiserweight Classic and wrestled as The Bollywood Boyz in NXT as well as the early days of 205 Live before becoming stooges for Jinder Mahal.
I see absolutely no reason whatsoever why they shouldn’t reform a team and try to take charge of this championship if the titles are legitimately created in the coming weeks/months.
The Undisputed Era: Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly
Of course, this can’t happen right now with Bobby Fish injured and this stable holding the NXT Tag Team Championship, but Fish’s injury could put an end to that if WWE isn’t going to just pivot and have Adam Cole fill in the spot going forward.
Cole himself is billed at 210 lbs, which is naturally something that can be adjusted to 205 with minimal effort or just lying about it, but I’d go so far as to say he’s better off staying out of the tag team division even if he were to go into the cruiserweight brand, whereas Fish and Kyle O’Reilly could excel as a continued tag team.
Fish is billed at 197 and O’Reilly at 200, so they’re both well within the weight class and have proven themselves a formidable tag team, which would bring some legitimacy to the tag titles by the time they’d get around to winning them.
While I don’t think this is necessarily going to be a game plan WWE will execute, I can’t imagine Fish and O’Reilly having massive success when paired up against bigger tag teams on Raw and SmackDown, so this could be a happy medium and a way to establish them more before they move up to that ranking.
Again, with Fish out, this isn’t going to happen soon, save for factoring Cole in and having them drop the NXT Tag Team Championship (possibly at TakeOver: New Orleans), yet they’re clearly well-liked and if WWE pays attention to their weights, they’d need to be considered for this.
The Brit-Am Bruisers
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch are both billed at 190 lbs and went through a series of matches together in NXT that ended in them becoming a tag team dubbed The Brit-Am Bruisers, although that seems to be more of a Mauro Ranallo dub than a legitimate tag team name for them.
If memory serves correctly, both have wrestled for 205 Live in the past—at least, I know Lorcan has, but nothing should be stopping Burch from doing just the same, even if he hasn’t.
I would put a lot of faith in seeing this tag team come up to the main roster if a tag team title is created for 205 Live because they’re the perfect type of guys who can be the jobbers of the division, which sounds like an insult, but it’s better than saying they wouldn’t even be able to accomplish that.
Lorcan strikes me as a somewhat “lovable loser” type and Burch as more of a Hardcore Holly / Val Venis “past his pure prime but still wants to teach these kids a lesson” character. They wouldn’t take priority over anybody, but they could still go out and have some fun matches, as both are talented.
Tony Nese and Drew Gulak
This isn’t a very imaginative one, as the two have been put together time and time again due to a previous friendship, and even though they’ve parted ways and had a little bit of a feud brewing, what’s to say WWE doesn’t just have them put aside their differences to team up again?
If Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens can restart their friendship after all they’ve been through, Nese and Gulak definitely can, and they even had a team name before as PowerPoint back when Gulak was doing his slideshows.
That name is cheesy as hell, and I absolutely love it.
Lio Rush and ???
It’s only a matter of time before Lio Rush is either released from WWE or brought into the cruiserweight division, as I can’t imagine a future for him as a regular singles competitor fighting the likes of Lars Sullivan and Killian Dain or even EC3 in the midcard of NXT, let alone making a name for himself on the main roster in the midcard or higher.
He could come onto 205 Live as a singles star and not factor into the tag team scene, of course, but if he does, it could be a better way to introduce him to fans without needing to give him a major push right off the bat with a lot of attention solely on him. A slower build as one-half of a tag team sometimes works better.
As for options of his potential partners, my gut tells me a heel Lio Rush would pair well with TJP, while a babyface Lio Rush seems like someone who could work with Mustafa Ali the best.
Then again, you don’t have to always put people together for any kind of similarities. Otherwise, how would we have gotten Daniel Bryan and Kane for Team Hell No? Perhaps Lio Rush could be a good fit for a stronger guy like Buddy Murphy if they didn’t want to go with the “young and cocky” type thing that could come with a Lio Rush and Noam Dar grouping, for example.
The Outliers
There are other men who meet the 205 weight limit, but I don’t see factoring into this whatsoever, as they are already far too prioritized elsewhere on other rosters.
For instance, Xavier Woods is not dropping The New Day to go find a new partner here, nor is Chad Gable going to leave Shelton Benjamin to do the same. Obviously, Finn Balor is above it, so he’s out of the mix, too.
I know absolutely nothing about Marcel Barthel, so I can’t put any kind of judgment or suggestions for anybody he could realistically team up with, either.
Then, there’s the prospect that WWE could sign talent from outside the company, such as The Young Bucks (who are currently billed at 206, but if they can’t drop one pound from their billing weight, that’s ridiculous). Part of me is suspicious that this might even be a championship made specifically for The Young Bucks to come in to represent it, even though they seem to be quite far from signing with WWE any time soon. It’s something to ponder about, even if the chances are slim.
There are still some wrestlers who haven’t truly been accounted for, like Ricochet, Neville, Ariya Daivari, Johnny Gargano, Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, Tommaso Ciampa, Buddy Murphy and Noam Dar.
If #DIY had not split up, Gargano and Ciampa would not only be in this list, but they’d be my assumed top pick to win the championship. Likewise, if Neville weren’t in a contract dispute, I’d put more faith in him being paired up with someone that would complement him, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
It’s hard to guess where the future will lead some of these guys, but those are our options as far as the current Raw, SmackDown and NXT rosters are concerned and in my mind, the most logical assumptions we can make about the potential tag teams we could see going forward.
Do you think the concept of a Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship is a good idea, or is that something you are more hesitant to trust in? Which teams would you like to see if that division takes off? Keep the discussion going in the comments section below!